The Way We Change
by crazytreeotaku
Summary: Time often changes us in unexpected ways. In our strength, our life, our love, and our hearts. But it's seldom easy. Expect lots of pain and trouble along the way. [main pairing: GaaraSakura minor NaruHina]
1. The Rescue

Prepare for the Authoress's Note of DOOM.

Hello again! CTO here with a new fanfic! My other one didn't really go that far but it doesn't matter. This one's gonna be waaay better. Longer too. Full blown plot. Action, adventure, romance, a little comedy, all that jazz. Yeah this one's gonna be epic. (God I hope I don't get lazy and crap out on this.) I'm already writing chapter five and I'm not even close to done. So far all my chapters are at least ten written pages. Anyway, I wanted to get some chapters written by hand before I started typing, so here it is.

This fanfic deviates from the cannon directly after chapter 273 of the manga, so if you haven't gotten that far you're in for spoilers galore and probably wont have a clue as to what's going on. If you don't know exactly which chap that is, it's the one where Sasori puts a sword through Sakura's stomach on the last page.

Although there will be other pairings, Gaara/Sakura is the main focus. I'm a very big fan of this pairing so if you don't like it, I wouldn't recommend reading this. However, there is also a very large and involved plot line that spans a few years into the future so romance is not the only thing that will be happening. I already have the outline written for the whole story. Also, if you're a huge Sasuke fan, back away quickly. I know that some of you people out there really like him and honestly, so did I in the beginning. I tried my best with him, but in light of the events in the manga and for reasons involving the plot of this story, there was only so much I could do to redeem him. All the other bad boys will be in here too. The Akatsuki and Orochimaru are gonna keep popping up, so bring your mallet and some bug spray. Oh, and for the brief mention of Gaara's mother, I have given her the name Kasuka.

Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome. Flamers will be summarily drowned in Jell-O. "You suck at writing" is not constructive criticism.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am making no money off of this. (Wouldn't that be nice though?)

Wow, that was a long Author's Note. Well its done, so now you can enjoy the fic.

The Way We Change

Chapter One

They approached the body slowly, Sakura leaning on Kakashi to support herself. He had a sad look in his eye. Chiyobaa limped off to the side, avoiding the body entirely, not looking at it. Naruto stood over the prone figure, fists clenching and unclenching at his sides. A few tears streaked his dusty face. The marks on his cheeks were shrinking back to their normal size and only a hint of red remained in the irises of his eyes. Somewhere down the ravine lay a mangled corpse with a crossed out Stone hitai-ate headband and a black and red cloak.

Sakura let go of Kakashi's arm to kneel by the body next to Naruto, who continued to stand and stare at it. A breath of wind moved the red hair over darkly outlined eyes revealing a blood red tattoo on the forehead. The kanji for love.

"It's not fair Sakura."

"I know."

Several thoughts began running through Sakura's head. Like Naruto had said, it wasn't fair. Gaara had worked so hard to become Kazekage, to earn the trust of his village. And he had done his best to defend them, and died because of it. Who would lead Sunagakure now? No one in Suna was as strong as Gaara. Perhaps one of his siblings could take the job, but either way, Suna had been dealt yet another blow. Now she though of Kankuro-san and Temari-san. How would she tell them? They had lost their little brother, whom they had finally grown close to after years of fear and uneasiness.

She looked at his face, which still had bits of the cracked sand armor on it. Stretching out a hand, she brushed some of the sand away and rested her other hand on his chest. Now that she thought of it, she hadn't been this close to him since he had tried to kill her back at their first chuunin exam. She marveled at how much he had changed. Inside and out.

Suddenly she froze, and her mind finally registered what the hand on his chest was telling her: he was still warm. He should have been at least a few degrees cooler than normal, considering he had to have been dead for at least two hours. Hesitantly, she pressed an ear to his chest. Silence...and then...thump-thump. She grabbed his wrist and felt for a pulse, ignoring Naruto's questioning look. It was slow, and shallow, but still there.

"Naruto! He's alive!" she screamed.

"What?" Naruto looked wide eyed at the seemingly lifeless body lying on the ground. "What do we do?"

Immediately, Sakura's medical and analytical skills kicked in, taking into account every thing she knew about the situation. She was nearly exhausted of chakra, but her reserves were building up again. Naruto, no doubt, was quickly regaining what energy he had expended helping Kakashi kill Deidara thanks to the Kyuubi. Kakashi looked very tired, but not nearly as much so as Chiyobaa-sama. Sunagakure was at least two days travel in their current condition and they had no idea when Gai's team would find them. But Gaara needed medical attention _now_. She quickly came to her decision.

"We have to do what we can to stabilize him long enough to get back to Suna. Once we get him stabilized we can move him." Suddenly remembering that Kakashi-sensei and Chiyobaa-sama were still there, and that they both out-ranked her, she to turned to them. "Does that sound like a good plan sensei?" He looked at her through weary eyes, internaly amazed she still had the energy for her brain to work properly.

"You're the medic-nin Sakura," he replied. "You know what's best for the patient." He gave her a tired smile and she briefly returned it before turning back towards the prone Gaara. Now that she looked closely, his breathing was so shallow and infrequent that she hadn't noticed it before. _That's odd..._ she thought. _It's almost as if he's hibernating._ She took his pulse again. Still as slow and shallow as before. _I guess he's already sort of stable._ She looked at Naruto, who was now kneeling beside her, looking between her and Gaara. He had been oddly quiet. _He must be really worried, _she thought to herself. But, suddenly he spoke up.

"He'll make it. If he's made it this far he can make it a little farther." There was that determination of his that she knew only too well. They looked at each other and she knew he was right. His eyes were once again completely blue and normal. Sakura stood up with Naruto and looked at Kakashi.

"He's stable enough to move somewhere nearby," she said.

"Good," breathed Kakashi. "We can find some cover in the trees, rest up a bit, and wait for Gai and the others to catch up. Once we're all rested and the Kazekage is stable enough, we will head towards Suna."

"Right," Sakura replied. She quickly checked Gaara again and found two fractured ribs and there would probably be a lot of bruises, but nothing that would be severely aggravated by moving him, so Kakashi and Naruto were soon organized to carry him up the side of the ravine and into the cover of the forest to find a good place to rest. Glancing back, Sakura noticed Chiyobaa-sama staring blankly at the shallow river rushing by.

Chiyo heard steps behind her and partially turned to see Sakura's feet as they stood next to each other. Chiyo spoke slowly as she looked through the shimmering water.

"I was thinking about the day I sealed the Shukaku into the unborn child inside of Kasuka's stomach." Sakura's eyes widened slightly in surprizer. She had thought she would be thinking about her grandson Sasori.

Sakura briefly recalled finally connecting her fist with his neck after she had pulled the sword out of her stomach. Even after healing it, that was gonna leave a scar. Pieces of wood and puppetry had flown everywhere, along with what had been left of his human organs. She snapped back to attention when Chiyo started talking again.

"She didn't say a word. She didn't even scream and I'm sure it must have been painful. But she never stopped cursing me and and the former Kazekage with her eyes." Sakura noted the lack of the respectful "sama" at the end of the Kazekage's title. "I was there the day he was born too. One of the first to hold him after his father. Covered in blood and sand..." Chiyo held up her arms in a mime of the memory. "This baby in my arms...never made a sound. He just looked at me like we both knew exactly what was coming."

Sakura expected her to continue, but she didn't. Chiyo simply turned toward the cliff the others had disappeared over and said, "We should go Sakura. We all fought hard today."

Nodding in agreement, they followed the path Kakashi and Naruto had taken to a clearing about a quarter of a mile from the ravine where a huge ancient tree had been partially hollowed out at the base by the slow passage of time. Gaara's unconscious form lay inside the hollow of the tree and Kakashi leaned on the bark close by, apparently resting. Naruto, with all his fantastic energy reserves, was setting up a camp and making a fire in a shallow sandy pit.

"Hey Naruto, is that my travel pack?" she asked, pointing. "I'd thought i lost it somewhere."

"Heh. I thought you'd want all your medical stuff later on, so I picked it up before we went after that Akatsuki guy that had Gaara." He smiled at her as he poked the fire into life.

"Well thanks," she said, smiling, as she squatted next to him and rummaged through the backpack, pulling out the supplies that she would need.

"No prob," he beamed. "Oh, and Kakashi-sensei set a few trip wires and stuff around the perimeter, so be careful if you leave."

"Good." She stood and carried a few supplies over to Kakashi and Chiyobaa-sama. Kakashi's wounds were minor and all it took were a few bandages to patch him up. His biggest problem was the same as Chiyo's: chakra depletion. Using both the Sharingan and the Chidori took a lot out of him. Chiyo was even worse, though physically fine. She didn't even need a band-aid, just lots of rest. Finally she checked Gaara again. First she poured a small amount of chakra into his chest to heal the fractured ribs. But even when she was done healing him, his heart rate and breathing had not changed._ That's so weird. He should have a quicker pulse by now, or at least steadier breathing. _

Suddenly a trip wire sprang somewhere nearby. Naruto silently cursed. "Damn! More enemies?" he whispered hoarsely. Sakura and Naruto both grabbed kunai knives and Chiyo and Kakashi tried to stand from their sitting positions but failed as they were too exhausted.

The bushes rustled on the edge of the clearing and all four tensed. Finally someone stepped out of the undergrowth.

"Tenten-chan!" exclaimed Sakura, relieved.

"Hey, hey! And Neji too!" cried Naruto. Neji limped slightly into the clearing as Tenten supported him with her arm.

"Ah, I'm so glad we found you guys," sighed Tenten. She helped Neji over to the fire and let him sit. Sakura went over to check his injuries. He resisted at first but relented when she threatened to knock him out. He had some bruising and lots of cuts and scrapes, but those were easily fixed with some medical cream and bandages. She asked him if he had sustained any internal injuries, and when he said no she joked and said that was good because he would simply have had to die if he did since she didn't have enough chakra left to heal him. Naruto laughed out loud at the look on Neji's face. Even Tenten chuckled at her comrade's misfortune. Sakura checked on her next. She had a plethora of cuts all over, but none were life threatening. More bandages were the order of the day.

"I am assuming you do not know where Gai and Lee-kun are?" asked Kakashi. Tenten shook her head.

"Nope. I met up with Neji by chance. But I see you recovered the Kazekage successfully. That's good."

"Yup!" cheered Naruto while giving the thumbs up and his trademark grin. "Mission: Success."

"Yes!" shouted someone from behind them. They all turned at the sudden voice. "The power of youth prevails again!"

"Fuzzy-Eyebrows!" Naruto shot out of his seat, returning the nice guy pose full force.

"Naruto-kun! Your youthful spirit never ceases to amaze!"

"What about you? What happened to you guys?"

"We all had to fight copies of ourselves. They were made of clay. It was an impressive technique but we prevailed in the end!"

"Gai-sensei is still not here though," Neji observed.

"I hope he's all right," said Tenten with a worried look.

"It seems like he's just fine," said Kakashi with a lazy smile.

"Observant as ever, my eternal rival," Gai interjected from the tree limb he was standing on, perched high above Kakashi's head. Everyone began settling around the campfire to eat. They ate rabbit, curtesy of Tenten and her throwing knives and the sun set shortly after. Every once in a while Sakura would get up to check the status of her teammates, silently thanking the gods that there were no life threatening injuries. _I'm nearly drained of chakra. If anyone was seriously injured I would be totally useless._ Her face saddened at her thoughts.

"Sakura-chan." She looked up into clear blue eyes over her skewer of rabbit. "Don't worry. We won right? We got Gaara back and we'll be going home and nobody's hurt."

"Thanks Naruto." She smiled weakly at him. Naruto looked around the campsite. Neji and Tenten were talking quietly to each other. Lee and Gai were talking animatedly to Chiyo about her and Sakura's battle, and about her puppets. Chiyo seemed reserved about telling them about her puppets but she couldn't really resist the efforts of the beautiful green beasts of Konoha. Naruto laughed at Lee and went over to talk to him. Gai drifted over to speak with Kakashi and Sakura decided to join in Naruto and Lee's conversation when Chiyo decided to turn in. The old woman rolled out a sleeping mat on the ground and settled under a tree to sleep.

Tenten soon set up blankets for herself and her teammates between the fire and the edge of the trees. Gai took the first watch of the night and Kakashi moved his mat near the fire. After a warm 'good night' to Sakura, Lee settled on one side of Tenten with Neji on the other, who was already asleep

"Sakura-chan, aren't you gonna go to sleep too?"questioned Naruto as he rolled out his sleeping mat.

"Yeah, but I should check Gaara-san's condition once more." He nodded and followed her as she strode up to the prodigious tree. It was huge. The hollow inside was circular, with enough room to lay Gaara down lengthwise without either his head or his feet touching the inside of the tree, and tall enough for Kakashi or Gai to stand up in with several more feet of space above their heads.

She knelt beside Gaara's unconscious body and took his pulse again. His face looked pained, as if he were having a bad dream. His vitals hadn't changed. Sakura bit the tip of her thumb in frustration and her brow wrinkled.

"What's wrong Sakura-chan?" Naruto was sitting on Gaara's other side, watching her closely.

"It's so weird. His condition hasn't changed since we found him. It's like he's hibernating, or in a coma. I don't know how to help him."

_Damn,_ thought Naruto. _What the hell did those bastards do to him? He's not dead, so the Shukaku can't be gone. Grandma said he would die if it was taken out. So what's going on?_ "Sakura-chan, it might have something to do with the Shukaku. The Akatsuki were trying to mess with it right? Maybe they did something to it." Naruto had a concerned expression on his face. "These demons have brought so much trouble!" he quietly raged and punched the ground in anger. "And he got the worst of it. Its' not fair."

Sakura looked into her friend's face. He had once told her what Gaara had said about living alone and loving only himself. Naruto had been alone too, and she often felt guilty about how she had treated him before she truly knew him. He was like a brother to her now. But Gaara, even with siblings, had still been alone. Sure he was insane, but insanity still loves company.

Naruto's voice brought her out of her thoughts. "But that's gonna change now. Right, Sakura-chan?" He grinned. She smiled back.

"Right." Sakura sighed and thought of Temari-san, Kankuro-san, and Sunagakure. Gaara had his brother and sister now, and the people of Suna had accepted him as their Kazekage. And somehow, Naruto managed to make friends with just about anyone. Gaara seemed to be on his list of precious people now too. Even Lee had never held a grudge against the sand-nin for nearly crippling him. Lee was truly a noble person, and even after he had finally stopped pursuing her romantically, he remained a devoted friend.

_He's still kinda creepy..._ thought Inner Sakura as she looked down on the pale sand shinobi's face. _No..._ she corrected herself. _Not creepy. Just...very intimidating._ She mentally sweat-dropped. She sighed and leaned back to look up into the split chasm of the tree.

"Well, it doesn't look like I can do anything more right now. We should get some sleep." She sighed again, got to her feet, and dusted herself off.

"Right. Good night then Sakura-chan." Naruto slowly trudged outside to settle on his sleeping mat which was just outside the tree, and pulled a blanket over himself. Sakura gathered up her medical supplies and walked out to find that Naruto had already rolled out her mat right next to his. Annoyed at his gall for putting their sleeping mats so close together, but too tired to argue or hit him over the head, she crawled onto her mat and was asleep as soon as her eyes closed.

Phew. Done. There you have it! He's not dead. Gaara will definitely be in the next chapter. It will be longer, but hopefully without the excruciatingly long Author's Note at the beginning.

One final note: There is a lot of confusion going around concerning Gaara's demon. It is a demon TANUKI. I have seen this translated as things like "raccoon-dog", "badger", and even in some cases Gaara has been confused for a squirrel or panda. Well let me put all your questions to rest once and for all. I have researched this thoroughly and this is what I have to tell anyone who wants to know. The confusion surrounding the translation of the word "tanuki" comes from the fact that there _is_ no english translation. It is an animal native only to Japan and areas of southeastern Manchuria and Siberia. The tanuki can be found in tons of Japanese myths. It is actually an atypical species of the dog family and grows to be about the size of a raccoon or badger and has dark markings around its eyes (just like Gaara ). This is where the confusion comes from. Its scientific name is _Canis viverriuns, nyctereutes, procyonoides._ Just Google the word 'tanuki' and see for yourself.

That's all for now. Bye-bye.


	2. Gaara's Demon

Yosh! Chap 2! Wow, I just realized how much freaking typing I'm gonna have to do. Holy crap what have I gotten myself into? Oh well. Wooooo! I have reviews! I heart you guys. You make me jump to my keyboard to type more. I'm currently writing chapter six by hand. Anyway...on to the fic!

Chapter Two

Dew clung to the grass and dripped from the leaves overhead. Maybe a wayward drop falling on her face was what had woken her. Either way, Sakura was awake. And now she couldn't get back to sleep.

The sky was a cloudless indigo blue. The stars had disappeared and a languid gray was crawling up the eastern horizon, indicating that sunrise would come in about an hour.

Sakura glanced around and shivered slightly at the chill, damp air. Tenten was missing, which meant she was on watch, probably crouched in a tree somewhere nearby. The haziness of sleep had left her body completely now, and she found that her chakra reserves were nearly back to normal. Naruto was sprawled on his mat with a bit of drool hanging at the corner of his mouth. She suddenly recalled what he had said the night before. _"Sakura-chan, it might have something to do with the Shukaku. The Akatsuki were trying to mess with it right? Maybe they did something to it."_

And then it hit her like a ton of bricks. Perhaps Naruto, in all his idiot glory, had indeed stumbled upon the reason for Gaara's near death-like trance. If the demon was somehow responsible, there was one way she might be able to help. She quickly surveyed the camp. Everyone was deeply asleep, recovering their strength. She reached over and gently shook Naruto by the shoulder, clamping her had over his mouth when it appeared he was about to yell. She slowly removed her hand.

"What is it Sakura-chan?" he whispered.

"I have an idea about how to help Gaara, but I need you to look out for me. Kakashi-sensei and Chiyobaa-sama might not like it."

She got up stealthily and crept over to the hollow of the tree, motioning Naruto to follow. Inside, she sat down next to Gaara's body and waited for Naruto to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

"So what's the deal Sakura-chan?" he asked in a whisper.

"Well...if the demon is the reason that he's like this," she motioned to the prone body, "then I might be able to figure out a way to wake him up using a technique I've been developing."

"What does it do?"

In truth, Sakura had been working on the technique to use on Naruto. After discovering the secret of the Kyuubi from one of the forbidden scrolls in Tsunade's library, everything about Naruto had made sense: his awesome power and chakra reserves, and his lonely life as a child, feared and detested. Sakura's burning desire to gain knowledge of Kyuubi and the seal from a medical point of view had led her to confront Tsunade about it. After much arguing with the Hokage, Sakura had finally managed to convince her to let her develop the special jutsu. But Tsunade was not going to be of use for the nature of this particular technique. To develop it, Sakura had gone to Yamanaka Inoshi: Ino's father and master of their family's form of mental jutsu.

Needless to say, Inoshi had been thoroughly surprised to learn that Sakura knew the truth about the Kyuubi's container. But after a very long explanation, Inoshi had agreed to help, though Ino could not be in on it due to the decree of silence pertaining to the nine-tails' vessel.

After four grueling months of intense mental abuse, she had finally managed to make it work in theory. It was not a jutsu that would be of any use in combat. In fact, it would leave her very vulnerable. She had not even fully tested it yet. When the time came, she would ask Naruto permission to probe the depths of his subconscious, but for now, it was time to finally test it for real... on Gaara.

"Naruto, this jutsu will allow me to..." she trailed off, trying to think of the best way to explain it. "Well, let's just say I'll be able to poke around in his head to figure out what's wrong with him."

"But...couldn't that be dangerous? Are you sure you can do it?"

"It's the only thing I can think of to do for him. Now help me. I need him to be sitting upright."

So together they propped Gaara's limp body up against the bark and folded his legs so she could kneel directly in front of him.

"Ok, here I go."

"Right. I've got your back Sakura-chan." Naruto nodded his head tensely. She closed her eyes and brought her hands up into a seal and began chanting under her breath. They were old words. Dead, archaic words. Naruto could not understand them, but he knew Sakura could handle herself when it came to completing jutsus with precise chakra control. Sakura slowly formed different hand seals, constantly chanting in a whisper. Finally, she brought the tips of her thumbs and fingers together in a triangle shape and stopped chanting. Naruto watched with baited breath as her face twitched and her eyes moved from side to side under closed eyelids.

A tingling sensation in her brain. A jerking pull from the back of her head. And she was plunged into darkness.

A pale image of herself floated through misty black and crimson. Her feet touched ground that didn't really exist. Images. Shapes. Wispy figures and dark muted colors drifted in and out of her vision. _This is Gaara's mind? It's so dark and gloomy. _

Suddenly a chill ran up her spine, a thrill of terror, as a deep rumbling sound came from the depths of the abyss around her. Slowly, a shadowy figure came into view, huge and bestial with faintly glowing yellow eyes. Sakura looked up into the face of Shukaku and suddenly felt very small and insignificant. She now realized just how vulnerable she was as she saw there was nothing protecting her from the demon that had been plaguing Gaara for more than fifteen years. _Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all..._

**A HUMAN** the giant beast rumbled, **HOW INTERESTING THAT YOU WOULD DARE VENTURE HERE.** A huge demented grin stretched across Shukaku's face.

_Ok, it was VERY bad idea!_ she screamed in her head.

**MY CONTAINER HAS NOT LET ME TASTE BLOOD FOR A WHILE. YOU...I SENSE THAT YOU ARE STRONG. SUCH A PRETTY PINK THING. YOU WILL BE FUN TO KILL.** Shukaku's toothy grin grew wider and Sakura began shaking, cold sweat running down her face. _What was I thinking? It was madness coming here! _

**THOSE FOOLS WHO THOUGHT THEY COULD PULL ME OUT... THAT WAS NOT FUN. NOT FUN. NOT FUN. HEH HEH. **

Suddenly the demon swiped at her. She screamed out loud and skidded across the imaginary ground at the force of the blow.

"No!" shouted a voice from somewhere, a voice that was vaguely familiar. She looked around, panicking, and a wispy , translucent figure with red hair hovered over her protectively. She brought her hands together in a seal. Familiar voices filled her head, echoing everywhere. Her vision blurred and she felt a pulling sensation at the back of her scull. Her arms hurt like they were caught in a vice. The see-through figure with the red hair turned, but her world went black before she could see it properly and dots of multi-colored light danced across the inside of her mind and then her eyes wrenched open.

Wide, pale green eyes stared back at her. _Who...?_ Her hazy mind took in the red hair, the black markings around the eyes, the tattoo. There were hands shaking her.

"Sakura-chan! Are you ok?"

But Naruto's question went unanswered as her eyes locked with Gaara's. She was sure she must have looked frightened. There was a twinge of fear in his eyes too, mixed with anger and desperation.

"I don't know what you did..." His voice was deep and raspy from disuse and dehydration. "But _don't_ do it again," he said almost dangerously.

"Sakura-chan! Say something!" She finally turned her head to look at Naruto but couldn't get any words out as her mouth hung slightly open. _Why can't I move?_ She looked back at Gaara and realized he was shaking slightly and gripping her upper arms. No longer looking at her, he stared at some point near her left shoulder, breathing heavily. Sakura finally remembered how to speak.

"Good. You're awa-" but she never finished because Gaara abruptly clutched his head in pain and let out a strangled noise.

"Kazekage-sama! Are you ok?" she asked. The formal address seemed to finally break through to him and he looked up. Sakura looked around and realized that Naruto had not been the only one calling her name through the mental haze. Kakashi was towering behind Naruto, Gai standing by him, and since there was no more room inside the tree, Lee was crouched at the opening, apparently relating what was going on to Tenten and Neji who were standing outside.

"Hey, what happened? Why did Sakura-san scream?" Lee asked frantically. Sakura had to catch her breath before she could answer.

"Well...we woke him up." She grinned stupidly.

"Sakura." Kakashi's voice was commanding. "Why did you scream?" She couldn't tell Kakashi-sensei and Gai-sensei what she had done. She knew they wouldn't be pleased.

"O-oh, Gaara-san just startled me w-when he woke up. He grabbed my arms. It just scared me, that's all." Kakashi and Gai looked at each other meaningfully, but didn't ask anything more.

"Well then..." Gai straightened up, his head almost hitting the inner bark of the tree. "Since we're all up, lets cook some breakfast!" He punched the air and ushered Lee, Tenten, and Neji away to start the fire again. With the opening clear, a new head poked through. Chiyobaa looked at Gaara through sleepy eyes, but he was not yet completely coherent and didn't notice her. She did not speak, just nodded her head towards Kakashi and left.

Kakashi addressed Gaara. "Kazekage-sama, it's good to see that you are awake."

"Yeah. Hey there Gaara." Naruto gave him his best fox-grin. Gaara finally began to take in his surroundings as he noticed the blonde for the first time.

"U-Uzumaki?" Naruto smiled at him and held out his hand to help him up.

"Ne, Gaara, you can call me Naruto!"

"Eh, Naruto, you should show more respect to him," Kakashi chided. Gaara looked from Kakashi to Naruto to Sakura, and finally took Naruto's hand and attempted to stand up.

"Ah, you should take it easy Kazekage-sama," Sakura tried, but Gaara simply waved his hand at her.

"I'm all right. Wh-what are you all doing here?"

"Let me explain," said Kakashi. "We received word in Konoha that the Akatsuki had attacked Suna and captured you. Hokage-sama dispatched us to help and later Gai's team joined us. When we arrived in Suna, we discovered that your brother, Kankuro-san, had attempted to pursue you and was defeated and poisoned." At the news that his brother had been injured, Gaara shifter nervously. "But Sakura here fixed him up quickly and we went after you." His posture relaxed and he glanced at the pink-haired kunoichi on his right.

"When we found you, Gai's team helped us break the barrier into the cave you were being held in. They were preoccupied by a trap as we infiltrated the area. Oh, I almost forgot...Chiyobaa-sama joined us when we were in Suna. She and Sakura took on Sasori of the Red Sands, and Naruto and I pursued Deidara, who had taken your body. Both are now dead," he finished. Gaara sighed and held his head in one hand as he took in all the new information._ Chiyo-sama is here? She and this kunoichi defeated the legendary puppet master? I thought he was dead. Apparently not._ Gaara's thoughts raced. He struggled to remain standing and Naruto pulled Gaara's arm over his shoulder to support him.

"What about Suna? Was the city damaged?"

"Well, the city its self is fine, though I understand that there were a few shinobi casualties caused by the Akatsuki's infiltration. Something about a spy." Gaara cursed under his breath at the mention of a spy.

"Suna is in your debt then." Gaara's head hung. "As am I."

"Hey, don't sweat it! What kind of friends or allies would we be if we didn't come to help?" Naruto's grin threatened to split his face in half. Gaara's eyes widened a little as he starred at the loud blonde shinobi.

Sakura, who had until now still been dealing with the shock of seeing and being mentally attacked by Shukaku, chose to help Naruto support Gaara as they led him outside. Kakashi strolled over to roll up his sleeping mat.

"Kunoichi..."

"Eh?"

"You...and Chiyo-sama...you defeated Sasori of the Red Sands?"

"Yup. We did." She smiled. "It was freaking hard though! I nearly died. He impaled me with a sword. Chiyobaa-sama fixed me up though." One of Gaara's non-existent eyebrows rose a little.

"Ah! Sakura-chan. That bastard did what?" Naruto cried.

"Don't worry, Naruto. I'm fine now. I'm way stronger than I was before!" Inner Sakura punched the air in her head. _Hell yeah I am! _"Ah, you probably don't remember me Kazekage-sama. I'm Haruno Sakura. I know you remember Naruto. Heh, he's pretty hard to forget."

_No. I remember you. I nearly killed you once. Don't _you_ remember?_ he thought, but he did not say anything. They sat down near the campfire where Tenten and Gai were cooking more rabbit for breakfast. Sakura let Naruto sit and talk with Gaara as she moved around the campsite to heal everyone's injuries more thoroughly now that her chakra level had returned to normal. All the deep bruises Lee, Gai, and Neji had acquired were quickly dealt with. As soon as he was healed, Lee bounded over to Gaara and Naruto.

"Gaara-san! It's been a while since that last mission I had in Suna. I wish we were meeting under happier circumstances, but it's still good to see you again."

"Lee," he acknowledged him with a nod.

"Eh? You guys know each other?" Naruto questioned.

"Lee visited Suna about two years ago on a mission. I was not yet Kazekage then."

Sakura was vaguely listening to what the others were saying as she finished healing some of Tenten's more serious cuts, which she had only been able to bandage last night. She soon finished and looked up to the sky. It was a cloudless gray, with a tint of fiery orange crowning the tops of the distant eastern hills and gilding the tops of trees. Kakashi and Neji had now joined the camp circle and were eating the cooked rabbit. Naruto and Lee were talking animatedly to Gaara, who still seemed slightly dazed, and he winced once in a while as if he had a splitting headache. He probably did. She would have given him some pain killers, but she doubted they would help. Aspirin wasn't very effective against enraged demons.

Her eyes suddenly drifted over to Chiyo, who was sitting under the same tree she had slept under. Walking over, Sakura spoke to her in a low voice.

"You should eat Chiyobaa-sama. We'll all need our strength for the travel back to Suna." Chiyo nodded and rose shakily. She slowly walked over to the others and stood near Gaara.

"Kazekage-sama." She bowed her head a bit.

"Chiyo-sama." He looked at her with a strange expression in his eye, as if they were speaking telepathically.

"Good to see you among the land of the living again." She gave a rueful smile. He nodded, and the tension around the campfire that nobody had quite noticed was there, disappeared. Chiyo sat down and pulled a skewer of rabbit meat towards herself. Gaara sat and did not eat. He just sipped water from one of Naruto's spare canteens. The water was warm, but soothing to his dry scratchy throat. Gaara had never been a big eater to begin with, and he suspected that if he tried to eat anything now, it wouldn't stay down for long. His muscles ached, like he'd been given a full-body electric shock, but there was no point in saying anything.

Once everyone was done eating, Kakashi addressed them all. "We should move out as soon as possible. Sakura, is everyone well enough to travel?"

"I think so." she mused. "That is if..." she trailed off, looking at Gaara. He sensed her question.

"I'm ready to go when you are," he said. That wasn't entirely true. He was still fatigued, but no amount of sitting in front of a campfire would alleviate that. Sakura looked at him skeptically for a second, but turned back to Kakashi.

"Well then, I think everyone is well enough to move out."

"All right! Let's go!" Naruto shouted, springing from his seat. Gai clasped his fist to his chest as tears streaked down his face.

"Ah! Such youth Naruto-kun!" he blubbered.

"Gai-sensei!" Lee mimicked Gai's pose. Everyone but Gaara and Chiyo sweat-dropped. The latter of which looked at them like they had two heads, the former showing no outward signs of annoyance. Neji's eye twitched, and Tenten chanted in her head, _must not kill...must not maim..._

--

After everyone had stored their gear in their packs, and put out the fire, it was time to leave. Gai and Lee erased all signs of the campsite and Kakashi removed all his traps from the surrounding area. Once all that was done, everyone gathered in the center of the clearing and leaned over a topographical map.

"Here's where we found the cave..." said Kakashi as he marked the map with a pencil.

"That whole area is demolished now," said Chiyo. Kakashi nodded and made a mental note, then continued marking the map.

"Right now, we're about...here." Another pencil mark. "Suna is here..."Kakashi added a little X to the map several inches away from the previous one. "There's not much besides forest and desert between us and Suna. We'll travel south-southwest." With that Kakashi folded up the map and slipped it into one of the breast pockets of his jounin vest, then hoisted his pack onto his shoulder. "All right, let's move out."

"Yosh!" shouted Naruto, and in a second, the clearing was empty.

--

Their pace was slow at first, due to fatigue, but they picked up speed as their bodies warmed up. The sun had risen properly a few hours ago and Gaara guessed it was about nine o'clock. At their slower pace it would take about a day and a half of travel, which meant they would reach Sunagakure sometime in the afternoon of the next day.

As soon as they had started out, Gaara had dropped to the back of the line, so Kakashi and Chiyo could lead. Neji, Tenten, and Lee were farther out in the trees on one side, while Gai flanked the other side, both groups hidden from the others by foliage as they sped through the tree tops. Sakura drifted in the middle of the formation and Naruto hung back by Gaara, who was obviously tired. Even though he was keeping up, he was landing heavily on each branch and pushing off with more effort than should be necessary for a ninja of his caliber. Then again, the others had not gone through what he had. And they had gotten to sleep. _If he slips...he's gonna face-plant right into a tree,_ thought Naruto with a sweatdrop.

The day wore on and the sun began sinking towards the western edge of the sky. The company of ninja had been in silence for hours when Neji suddenly burst through the leaves to the right with Tenten and Lee close behind.

"There are two people up ahead coming our direction. Ninja!"

Everyone dropped to the forest floor and hid themselves from the oncoming ninja. A few minutes passed, and Neji's brow furrowed in concentration.

"What is it Neji? What do you see?" whispered Naruto, who lay on his stomach, hidden by the undergrowth to Neji's left. Neji squinted more, the veins around his Byakugan bulging.

"Their chakra... it seems a bit familiar, but I'm not sure...Ah! Here they come!"

Sure enough, the unknown shinobi burst through the trees, headed in the direction the others had come from. Naruto sighed in relief at the sight of four blonde pig-tails and a giant folded fan.

"Temari! Kankuro!" he shouted, jumping out of the bushes to get their attention before they sped out of sight. The two sand-nin skidded to a halt and watched as the other nine ninja emerged from their hiding places in the forest. Their eyes searched nervously for one person in particular. They sighed in relief when Gaara dropped heavily from a low tree branch onto his feet, and stepped toward his siblings.

"Temari, Kankuro..." he started, but never finished. Before he knew it, Kankuro had him in a bear hug. Temari stood a few feet away with her face in her hands. She wasn't crying, but her knees were shaking. Sakura put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"K-Kankuro," Gaara choked out. Kankuro's hug was crushing him slightly. Gaara and his siblings had grown much closer in the past few years since the incident with Naruto, but close physical contact was still strange for him. "K-Kankuro! I'm fine, you can let go now..."

"Oh, sorry..." Kankuro let go and backed away with an apologetic smile. Naruto resisted the urge to go a_wwww_ .

"Hehe. I told you guys we would get him back! I never go back on my word!" He gave them the nice-guy pose. Sakura had the urge to hit him with something hard, but resisted, and smiled instead.

"Heh. You're a man of your word Naruto."

"That's right!" cried Lee. "That's always been Naruto-kun's way of the ninja! He even gave the nice-guy pose."

"W-was it really the spirit of the Shukaku that they were after?" Temari asked as she finally removed her hands from her face.

"It appears that way. They attempted to extract it from me."

"So... you guys interrupted them then? How? Didn't you have to fight nine Akatsuki members?"

Kakashi shook his head. "No, Temari-san. There were only two that were there when we arrived. It seemed like they were already finished with Gaara-san. We thought we were too late. But he wasn't dead after all. We're not exactly sure why," he said comically.

"Yeah, grandma said you would die. We thought you were dead cuz they got Shukaku," said Naruto.

"I thought they got him too... I thought I was dead, but..." Gaara lifted his left hand and held the side of his face, his fingertips touching the tattoo. "...he's still there."

Everyone was silent for a moment. Neji, Tenten, and Gai were sort of at a loss as to what the others were talking about, so Lee quietly promised to fill them in later.

Suddenly Chiyo, who had not said a word since her greeting to Gaara that morning, decided to pose a rather strange question.

"Which do you think is more powerful, a group of missing-nins, strong as they may be...or a demon spirit that is thousands of years old?"

"What do you mean Chiyo-sama?" asked Temari.

"I would say the demon. Think about it. These Akatsuki people have not been around for very long. True, they are powerful, but the techniques that Suna's priests used to seal and imprison the demon are centuries old, and even then our strongest priests need ten days to complete such a jutsu. As for the two previous holders of the Shukaku... I don't know much about them. It was a long time ago. But they were weak, and they were not sealed with the demon _before_ birth like Gaara-sama. Because of that, when the demon was taken out of them, the extraction was a bit easier, even though it killed them. I think the Shukaku simply did not _allow_ itself to be removed. After all, which would rather be sealed in? A tea kettle, or a walking, talking human being?" Chiyo sighed and looked a little disturbed at what she said next. "I think... the Shukaku has chosen to _stay_ with Gaara-sama."

"So then, the Akatsuki failed?" asked Kankuro.

"They did not get the Shukaku from me," said Gaara quietly, "but they did take most of the demon's chakra. It will take a while for it to build up again."

"Maybe they were fooled by that," Naruto mused. "They thought they got it, but all they really got was a whole bunch of chakra."

"Even if that is the case, the Akatsuki will not be fooled for long," Gaara said without looking at Naruto. His eyes were locked on some point on the ground.

Realizing that the conversation about the Akatsuki was depressing everyone, Kakashi figured it was time to get moving again. Gai seemed to have read his mind as the two glanced at each other and nodded in silent agreement.

"All right," Gai said, stepping forward, "we should continue on to Sunagakure. Everyone is probably wondering what's happened to us."

Kakashi smiled. "I bet they want their Kazekage back." Gaara nodded tersely. Everyone tried to shake off the dark cloud that seemed to have settled over them and took to the trees again. Gaara and his siblings were silent for the rest of the journey. No one dared to interrupt their verbal solitude.

Woot, there it is. Chapter two. (dances) Thanks again to my reviewers. I'm glad you guys like my story. Just so everyone knows, this wont have any yaoi in it. Not that yaoi in and of itself is bad, there just wont be any here. The next chapter is close to twenty written pages, so it'll probably take me a few days to type it up. It's one of the longer ones, but there's a lot of important stuff in it.

Read and Review! The angry bunny commands you! ...please?


	3. Humanity

Ah, Chapter Three. OMGOMGOMG this story was added to a bunch of peoples' favorites list! Thank you guys. I (heart) you. I (heart) you ALL! As an answer to BlueBastard's review (which I only just read), yes, Sakura will make Gaara feel all better. As I said, the main paring in this fic is Gaara/Sakura, but there will be a few other ones coming soon. For those who didn't quite realize what happened with Shukaku, Gaara woke up because he had to save Sakura from the demon.

This chapter's gonna be long. There is a lot of important character interaction in it. I'm sorry it took all this time to post this chapter. Not only was it long, but I lost power at my house for two days due to hurricane Wilma. That meant no computer. On the up side, I did work on writing more of chapter six by hand.

Speaking of which, I had a brain splurge at school! One of my best friends, KageNoKatana, acted as my unofficial beta and helped me iron out the problems I was having with chapter six. Now that I know what I'm gonna do, I can get on to writing the more important parts of the chapter! Love the beta! Love the reviewers! Love the spell check!

Now on to the fic!

Chapter Three

The dying heat of the day rolled off the sand dunes in waves. Sweat dripped off the faces of the Leaf ninja as they finally came in sight of the huge rock walls surrounding the city of Sunagakure. The gap in the rock face that served as the main entrance had been cleaned of the bodies and blood left behind by Sasori's spy. The three ninjas on guard duty looked shocked as seven Leaf ninja, the elderly Chiyobaa-sama, and the infamous Sand siblings came into view. The fact that one of those siblings was the Kazekage that had been taken captive in battle five days ago was the most shocking, and relieving, thing of all. One of the guards left immediately to inform the council members of Gaara's return. The other two guards stood there flabbergasted for several seconds before finally coming to their senses. They both smiled and bowed to Gaara.

"Welcome back Kazekage-sama ," they said.

Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro slowly led the others towards the tower in the middle of the city that served as the Kazekage's headquarters. Chiyo parted ways with them half way, saying she simply wanted to return to her retirement. With a bow towards the Kazekage, and a warm farewell to Sakura, Naruto, and Kakashi, she drifted off down a side street to her home.

Due to it being the hottest part of the day, few people were out walking under the covered walkways. Those who did see the returning ninja greeted the Kazekage mostly with smiles and polite reverence. The Leaf ninja were greeted with a mix of awe and suspicion. At one point they passed a few near-empty market stalls where a little boy of about five years old was shopping with his mother. The boy had a gleeful expression on his face as he tugged on his mother's skirt and told her to look at the Kazekage and his funny looking friends. Naruto laughed at the notion of being funny looking as they walked passed the boy and his mortified mother.

A question that had been rolling around in the back of Sakura's brain since she had first seen him finally came to the surface.

"Kazekage-sama, where's your gourd?" she asked. He answered without stopping or turning to look at her.

"My sand was scattered during the battle."

"Ne, Gaara," Naruto interrupted. "How are you going to get it back?" At this Gaara did stop, and turned his head to look at some far-off point in the city, trying to remember exactly where he had fought Deidara.

"I'll collect it later," he answered cryptically, and continued walking.

The Kazekage's tower was very similar to the Hokage's in it's basic design. Just sandier. The guard they had seen earlier came rushing into the front entrance, following what could only be the members of Gaara's council. They looked both happy and slightly alarmed to see him. Gaara had appointed all of them for their jobs depending on how qualified they were, which had been a very professional move. However, some of them were old enough to remember Gaara as a child from when they had served under his father, and were still wary of him. Never the less, they all recognized that Gaara was indeed a very capable Kazekage.

Suddenly Baki pushed his way to the front of the group. "Gaara-sama! You're alive!"

"Yes. We owe the Leaf ninja our thanks for their help." One or two of the older shinobi flinched at his cold, abrupt tone. Then again, who could blame him? How would you feel if you had been practically blown up, taken captive, had nearly all your chakra sucked out of you, and almost had your soul ripped in two? Gaara had had a rather bad week.

One of the council members wandered over to the Leaf nins to make an attempt at foreign relations. They were Sand's allies after all. But Gaara beat him to it, addressing Kakashi and Gai.

"You are welcome to stay as many days as you need to rest or until your Hokage wants you back. There are rooms for guests on the upper floors. Tanaka will show you where they are." He nodded his head towards the guard. "Hatake-san, Maito-san, will you two please come with me? I will need your assistance in reporting everything that happened concerning the Akatsuki."

A little surprised that he had somehow learned their names, Kakashi and Gai followed Gaara, his siblings, and the council members to a meeting room somewhere in the tower. The guard, Tanaka, turned and smiled at the remaining teenagers.

"Well, I guess I'm supposed to show you to the guest quarters. You all look exhausted. Just follow me please."

Naruto, Sakura, Neji, Tenten, and Lee followed Tanaka down a hallway and up a staircase. Messengers and shinobi passed them in the hallways, carrying various scrolls and reports to obscure destinations, barely giving the party a second glance as they rushed off. They got to the third floor and headed down yet another sand colored hallway before they finally stopped in front of a door. Tanaka opened it to reveal a sitting area with two couches, an arm chair, and a coffee table. There were sliding glass doors that led onto a small balcony and a hallway off to the left with four doors in it.

"I'm afraid the secondary guest quarters are not very fancy. We don't use them often, but the rooms have showers and everything. You can see a good view of the city from that balcony, especially at night."

"I'm sure they'll be fine Tanaka-san," said Tenten politely.

"Ok then. I'll leave you all to get settled in. I need to return to my post."

"Hey, hey!" shouted Naruto. He was out on the balcony, leaning over the rail and looking straight up.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sakura shouted.

"What is that above us? It looks like another balcony."

"Ah..." Tanaka walked out and looked up as well. "If I'm not mistaken... I believe that Kazekage-sama's quarters are right above you."

"Eh? He stays here? Doesn't he have a house or something?"

"Well, I believe he does share a house with his siblings, but I've been told he often spends the night here working, so he has a room to keep things in."

"He must work very hard," said Neji in a cool voice.

"Yes I believe so. He also worked very hard to get where he is too. Not too long ago he was... well, that is..." Tanaka faltered, unsure of whether these foreign ninja should be told about their leader's violent past. Tanaka himself had only heard stories.

"Yeah, we know. He was totally out of control. Right, Sakura-chan?"

"Naruto! You shouldn't say something like that," she scolded.

"But me and Fuzzy Eyebrows beat some sense into him. Right Lee?"

"Argh! You're impossible Naruto," she fumed. Lee just smiled sheepishly in response. Tanaka was wide-eyed.

"S-so you know... I mean, you knew him before?" he asked, astonished.

"Yeah, we all met him at the Chuunin Exams in Konoha two and a half years ago," said Naruto. He squinted his eyes in thought and crossed his arms. "Yeah, he was definitely different back then."

Sakura sighed. _Naruto, you're still so immature. _

"Well, I really should get back to my post now. I hope you have everything you need," said Tanaka as he walked to the door. "Good bye."

"Thank you Tanaka-san!" Tenten shouted after him. He waved back and left.

_Who are these people?_ He thought to himself and then 'poofed' back to his post.

Once Tanaka left, Neji walked down the hall and put his bag in one of the rooms. Tenten threw hers unceremoniously into the room next to it.

"Hmm... I should probably room with Neji," Lee contemplated to himself.

"Hey Sakura-can, wanna share a room with me? Huh? How 'bout it?" Naruto wiggled his eyebrows at her with a perverted grin he must have learned from Jiraiya. Sakura promptly hit him on the back of his head.

"Yeah right! I'm gonna room with Tenten-chan."

"Hmph. Fine." Naruto tenderly held the back of his head where a lump was forming. "Hey Lee, how about we all train together huh? You, me, and Sakura-chan. Neji and Tenten can come too."

"Naruto! At least let us rest for a day. Geeze you're such a stamina freak. We just got here!" Sakura cried.

"I have to agree Naruto-kun. Your youth is impressive as always, but how about tomorrow?"

"Ok, fine..." he pouted. Sakura drifted over to Tenten's room and threw her backpack onto the second, unoccupied bed. Tenten was in the shower, and Sakura decided she would take one too when she was finished.

Kakashi and Gai finally found their way to the guest rooms an hour later and called the five teenagers out into the sitting area.

"Ne, what's this about Kakashi sensei?" asked Naruto from his seat on the couch. Sakura and Lee sat next to him. Neji and Tenten sat on the other couch facing opposite them. Gai stood, looking impressive, but a bit goofy at the same time. Sakura would never get used to those eyebrows.

"Well..." said Kakashi, "we accompanied the Kazekage to the meeting with the other council members. We helped report exactly what happened, but I'm afraid that what is done in Suna now is not in our hands. However, Gaara-sama has asked that we report what's happened to Tsunade-sama and ask her to come to Suna as an urgent diplomatic mission."

"Why Tsunade-sensei?" Sakura questioned. "I know she's Hokage and we're allies, but isn't this strictly Sand's business?"

"That would be true..." Gai interjected, "but there are other factors involved. The Akatsuki is Konoha business too. Also, the Chuunin Exams that are coming up in two weeks were to be held in Konoha again. As Kazekage, Gaara was supposed to attend the final matches."

"Right," said Kakashi. "There are a lot of politics involved; and also the safety of the villages. If there is a danger of another attack by Akatsuki on either Sunagakure or Konohagakure, the exams might have to be moved back, or even canceled."

"Sensei..." said Neji slowly, "Lee has told us about the fact that the Kazekage has a powerful demon sealed inside him. So that was what the Akatsuki were after when they captured him. So if that is the case... why would they bother to attack Konoha?"

Kakashi and Gai were silent for a moment. Naruto shifted nervously in his seat. He looked up and locked eyes with the teachers.

"Kakashi-sensei..." he trailed off, his unspoken question hanging in the air between them. Kakashi's visible eye closed and he let out a small sigh. He exchanged a glance with Gai, who looked like he was about to speak, but Kakashi shook his head, cutting him off.

"Well Naruto... it's your choice." Naruto inhaled deeply and let it out.

"Naruto-kun?" Lee questioned.

"There is also a demon vessel, a Jinchuuriki, in Konoha. Not just here. The Akatsuki also wants that Jinchuuriki." He didn't look up from the floor.

"It's you, isn't it Naruto?" said Neji calmly. Naruto's head shot up in surprise, eyes wide. Lee and Tenten had slightly shocked faces. "It makes sense. Shikamaru and I once discussed your strange strength. I mentioned the second chakra you possessed during our fight in the finals. He didn't say anything, but I'm sure he has been speculating along these lines for years now. I'm sure it would come as no surprise if you told him. It certainly would explain a lot."

"Naruto-kun, is there really a demon sealed inside of you?" asked Lee in awe. Naruto nodded. "What kind of demon is it?"

"It... it's the Kyuubi, the nine-tailed fox."

"B-but... " Tenten stammered, "I thought it was killed by the fourth Hokage years ago... wasn't it?"

"No. He couldn't kill it so he imprisoned it. He sealed it into me when I was a baby."

"Gai-sensei? Did you know about this?" Lee questioned.

"Most adult shinobi and some civilians do. But there was a decree passed about it. Anyone who was not old enough to remember was not to be told. Kakashi! How did Naruto-kun find out anyway?"

"It was Mizuki who told him. And since he knows, I decided he had the right to tell his friends if he wanted to."

Gai supposed that was reasonable. He looked at Naruto's down-turned face, devoid of his usual enthusiasm. _This must be hard on him._

"Well," said Lee as he stood up. "This certainly explains why you are so strong Naruto-kun." He gave Naruto a huge grin. "In a way you even saved the village! You carried this burden so long. You truly amaze Naruto-kun!" Lee and Neji looked perfectly calm but Tenten stilled appeared unsettled. Sakura decided she would put her worries to rest with her patented analytical skills.

"I've studied several scrolls on seals and as I understand it, Naruto may be able to use the demon's chakra, but the demon itself is contained," she said with her pointer finger held up in front of her face as though she were teaching the basics of water walking. "The methods used on the Kazekage and Naruto were completely different."

"Sakura-chan... you're right, the methods were different. But, ya know, he really had it worse than me."

"Yeah..."

"And at least... when I die, the nine-tails dies with me."

"Hey! Don't talk about dying so soon," she said. Naruto looked serious for a moment before he stood up and put his fists in the air.

"Hell no! I ain't that easy to kill! I still have to be Hokage and beat the Akatsuki..." he shouted as he picked up his bag and walked over to toss it into one of the still empty rooms, ranting the whole way. "...and beat Orochimaru and bring back Sasuke-bastard and beat the crap out of him!" He then whipped out his beloved froggy-wallet, Gama-chan, and held it in the air. "And now I have to go see if Suna has any good ramen! Yosh!' And he disappeared out the door.

"Ow..." Lee whined from his position on the floor where he had been blown over. "I think I'm deaf... again." Tenten just groaned in response. He eyes were too swirly to even see. Neji just sat on the sofa, gripping the leather for dear life.

"Naruto just keeps rebounding doesn't he?" said Kakashi with a comic look in his one visible eye. "Anyway, we sent a message to Hokage-sama and we should receive a reply by tomorrow morning. Until then we stay here and wait for orders."

"Do you think Tsunade-sensei will come?"

"I'm not sure Sakura. It's possible though."

"Ok!" Gai suddenly shouted, "Naruto-kun's youthfulness has inspired me!" He punched the air dramatically. "We should do something! Kakashi! I challenge you!" Kakashi stared at the finger that was pointing at him and sighed.

"At what?" Gai rummaged around in his pack and pulled out... a deck of cards (Dun dun dun), and held it out dramatically. Kakashi walked leisurely to the room Naruto had put his stuff in earlier and deposited his belongings on the other bed and came back out.

"Sakura, go find Naruto and bring him back once he's done eating. I'm sure he'd like to play too."

"Sure sensei."

Kakashi consigned himself to his fate as Gai began dealing cards for Gin Rummy. Lee eagerly joined his sensei and soon Tenten was roped into playing as well. Neji escaped by offering to help Sakura in her search for Naruto.

--

Neji and Sakura walked down the streets of Sunagakure in the dwindling evening sunlight. Most of the walkways were covered in one way or another to protect from the sun's harsh rays during the day. The whole city seemed to have been carved out of the rock its self long ago. Maybe it had been.

"Sakura-san."

"Yeah Neji... uh, -san?"

"Just Neji is fine. I was wondering how long you knew about Naruto being a Jinchuuriki."

"Oh... about half a year. A lot of stuff about him made sense after I found out. When I was really young, just about to start at the academy, my parents told me to look out for a blonde boy with blue eyes. They said he was 'trouble'. When I met Naruto in person, I assumed they had been talking about all the pranks he pulled on people. They were really just talking about the demon, but they couldn't say that to me. All they saw was what was inside Naruto, not Naruto himself. Though I'm sure his outer image probably didn't help. Still... Naruto himself is a really good person." Neji nodded in agreement.

"Yes. He sees the world very clearly, in a way my Byakugan does not. At first I considered him a dunce; someone who could never hope to be better than dead last, but he proved me wrong."

They continued walking in search of their friend until they finally asked a shop owner where the nearest ramen stand was. He informed them there were two noodle shops nearby and told them where to go. The first noodle shop was a no-go. No one had seen their blonde friend. The second, however, was a figurative "gold mine". Naruto's golden hair stuck up over the edge of the booth he was sitting in.

"So, Naruto, how's it compare to Ichiraku?" Sakura grinned at him as she and Neji slid into the seat on the other side of the table.

"Aii ooh-ahs!" he cheered through a mouthful of noodles, his greeting garbled. He swallowed and wiped his mouth. "Hi you guys!"

"We were just talking about you Naruto," said Sakura.

"Really?" He blinked in surprise, then grinned again. "Talking about how great I am, ne?" Sakura was a bout to scoff when Neji cut her off.

"Actually... in a way, we sort of were, as strange as that may sound."

"Ah, hehe." Naruto smiled and scratched the back of his head.

"So, is the ramen here as good as at Ichiraku?" Sakura asked again.

"It's pretty close. The beef ramen is really good." He slurped up more noodles from what appeared to be his second bowl.

"Maybe I'll have some too then..." she mused. The waitress soon came by to ask if Neji and Sakura wanted anything. Sakura ordered a bowl of beef as Naruto had recommended and Neji ordered a small bowl with chicken and shrimp. When they all finished they shared a plate of dango and drank tea.

"Well, I think we should be getting back now Naruto. The others will be wondering where we are," said Sakura as she sipped the last of her tea. "Gai-sensei and Kakashi-sensei were playing cards when we left." Naruto let out a contented sigh and patted his belly.

"All right then. Let's go."

Naruto, Sakura, and Neji all pooled their money to pay the bill and left the noodle shop. They had been surprised that their currency had been accepted but apparently trade had been so good in the past couple years that both Fire Country and Wind Country currency was circulated in Suna.

They headed back to the Kazekage's tower and flashed their ID's at the front desk. When they got back to the guest rooms it was nine o'clock and Gai had challenged Kakashi to yet another game of Go Fish. If Gai won this game he would be one up on the score he constantly kept with his eternal rival. Naruto, Sakura, and Neji joined in the new hand and they all played for another half hour. Soon the girls started yawning and they retreated to the room they were sharing. The rest soon followed after Kakashi had evened the score with Gai. Kakashi shared a room with Naruto. Seeing as Neji had already claimed one of the beds in the third room, Lee and Gai played rock paper scissors for the second bed. Gai lost and took the fold-out couch in the corner of their room. The fourth guest room was left empty. Within minutes everyone was asleep.

--

Gaara closed the door with a dull thud and leaned his back on the cool wood. His left hand covered his face as he slid down to sit on the floor. He was exhausted. The combination of being drained of most of his chakra, traveling for two days, and having to have endless meetings and discussions with the various members of the council concerning the state of his control over the demon, had taken a toll on him. They might never completely trust him again. But he had submitted to their questions willingly. He would not lie to them.

He had also had to use more chakra to gather all of the sand of his gourd back to him. The sand had been scattered all over a section of the city that was about forty meters square. The only thing that made it easier was the fact that his sand was different than the normal desert sand. It was full of chakra and old blood. It was a fairly simple task to call it back to him, but tedious none the less. The reformed gourd now stood in the corner of the room, deceptively motionless.

The room he was sitting in was specifically for the Kazekage. It wasn't fancy, but it was attached directly to his office. In fact, at the moment it was downright bare. The only furniture was a bed (which he never used for obvious reasons), a small desk, and a dresser, which was the only thing he really did use. The room was a glorified closet. Gaara kept spare clothes and his official robes in the dresser for when he went between the tower and his home with Temari and Kankuro.

He heaved himself off the floor and padded over to pull out the middle drawer as he unzipped the long black coat that he wore into battle. He had not been able to even change when he had gotten back. The cloth was caked with dirt, sweat, and sand. _I'll take it home to wash tomorrow,_ he thought wearily.

Temari and Kankuro had been at his side almost the whole day until he had ordered them to go home around midnight. Gaara glanced at the digital clock on the barren desk: 3:04. He sighed and grabbed some clean clothing and head to the small bathroom.

Gaara stood under the hot spray, letting the water run over his back in rivulets and through his blood red hair. Sand and dirt washed into the drain. He stood there with his palms against the cool tile, eyes closed. After a few more minutes he finally got out dried himself off.

What he really needed was to meditate for a few hours. It was the only way he could "rest". He liked to meditate in a comfortable place. At first he had simply sat on the bed in the room attached to his office, but the bed had seemed to mock him, reminding him of why he had to meditate in the first place. Then one day he had discovered the guest rooms on the floor below, conveniently having a small balcony below his. The guest rooms had a siting area with two couches and a chair. A very comfortable, very squishy, plush chair. Perfect. Problem solved. However, there was a problem with his favorite chair right now. The guest rooms were being used.

Gaara walked back out of the bathroom and looked at the clock again : 3:20. _No one will be awake. I'll just leave in a few hours._

With that decision made, he opened the sliding glass door to the balcony, stepped over to the railing, and disappeared over the edge.

--

Sakura wasn't sure exactly when she had stopped being asleep and started being awake, but, just like the night they had recovered Gaara, she could not get back to sleep. The bed was remarkably comfortable, and she was remarkably comfortable in it. A nice hot shower, a hot meal, and soft pajamas tend to do that to a person. But she was still awake, so there was no use staying in bed. _Maybe if I walk around a little I'll be able to go back to sleep. _

Sakura silently lifted herself out of the bed and glanced over Tenten's sleeping form to the little digital clock on the night stand : 4:37. _Ugh. It's way too early to feel this awake._ Never the less, she padded over to the door and gripped the knob. And then she felt it. There was another person awake and sitting in the sitting area. _It's probably Neji or Kakashi-sensei or something. Maybe talking with them for a little while will help me sleep._ And so she turned the knob and pushed the door open.

--

Gaara had sensed that someone was awake through the acute awareness that his meditative state brought him. He had also sensed them pause at the door before opening it. Knowing that the other person knew he was there, he made no move to leave. That would be suspicious. He would simply explain that he had been using the chair and be on his way. That thought didn't make it any less awkward. He silently hoped it would be Naruto or Lee. They would understand. But he was sadly disappointed and a little surprised when a disheveled pink head stuck out of the doorway.

Sakura did not look up until it was too late. There she was; standing in nothing but long pajama pants and a loose T-shirt with messy hair in front of Sabaku no Gaara, the Kazekage himself. Then again, he was sitting there in only a loose pair of black, draw-string pants and a tight black T-shirt. His hair was slightly damp too. Not to mention that this was the guest sitting area. _What's he doing here?_

"My apologies, Haruno-san. I was just... using the chair. I usually meditate here. These rooms are not often used." He unfolded his crossed legs from underneath himself and stood up. When Sakura realized he was actually leaving, she suddenly didn't want to be alone.

"W-wait!" she called softly. Icy jade eyes locked with hers in mild curiosity. "You Don't have to go Kazekage-sama. I'm sorry I disturbed your meditation." It was slightly odd calling him that when they were both wearing their pajamas. He turned slowly to look at her, his face cool and impassive, not letting on that he was the least bit surprised. _She doesn't want me to leave? Or is she just being polite?_

"You don't have to call me that you know," he said slowly. "Naruto doesn't. I've never really liked being called that anyway."

"Oh... um, then Gaara-san?"

"Just Gaara. Gaara-san makes me sound like an old man." She blinked. _Did he just tell a joke?_ She giggled slightly even if he didn't mean it to be funny. "Why are you awake Haruno-san?"

"Well first off... if Naruto and I are going to call you Gaara, then you call me Sakura. And well... I just sorta woke up. I'm not sleepy anymore. I thought maybe getting up and walking a bit would get me back to sleep." She plopped down on the couch and crossed her arms lazily. Gaara stood there for a moment or two before she tilted her head toward the chair with a questioning look. He slowly sat down again, this time not folding his legs underneath him. He didn't feel like meditating anymore.

"Gaara... you don't sleep right? Naruto told me."

"That's correct."

"You've never been able to sleep?"

"Even when I was an infant I did not sleep. As I grew older it became more of a conscious choice. I suppose that must be very interesting from a medical point of view." It was odd to think of Gaara as having been a baby at any point in time.

"Well, yeah. I mean... you must admit it's very unusual. How do you rest? Relax? Recover your energy?"

"Meditation mostly." Gaara was interested by her unusual appetite for knowledge. But it suited an intelligent medic-nin such as herself. She asked her questions unflinchingly.

"Oh..." Sakura suddenly realized just what she'd interrupted. However, he didn't seem too upset about it, so she continued. "I've been trying to gather data on how sealed demons affect their hos-... o-oh, I'm sorry. That was... insensitive." He shook his head.

"No. You were looking at it from the point of view of a Medic-nin. It's logical."

"Oh... well, I even created a jutsu to look at a person's subconscious so that-" Gaara suddenly cut her off.

"Is that what you did to me?"

"Ah... well, it was the only thing I could think of to figure out what was wrong. You wouldn't wake up."

"You knew about the demon, what it used to do to my mental state... still does to an extent. You could have been killed." For some reason he sounded angry that she had helped him and it irritated her.

"I was just trying to help," she said almost indignantly.

"You were willing to risk your life just to _try_ to help?"

"Of course. It's my job." He leaned back into the chair. A slightly uncomfortable silence reigned for several minutes. But then his quiet voice startled her out of her thoughts.

"You were wrong you know..."_ Is he still mad about the poking-your-subconscious thing? That ungrateful. Why I oughta... _"When you said I probably didn't remember you... I did."

"Oh... you did?"

"I remember you from the Chuunin Exams. You... you jumped into save the Uchiha. All you had was a kunai and I was half transformed." She froze. Sasuke's name was painful, and the memory of sand encasing her body came rushing back. Her hand drifted unconsciously to touch her neck, but the imaginary sand vanished and she came back to herself. "You were weak back then... why did you do it?" he asked in almost a whisper.

"I... I had to. You're right. I was weak, but I had to. He was... my teammate."

"You were in love with him. So was that blonde girl. It was obvious." Gaara sneered a little at the word 'love'. It still hurt places in his chest to say it when not referring to loving only himself like he used to. "But he's a traitor now. You and Naruto are looking for him correct? Since you love him so much, would you welcome him back with open arms?" Gaara's face was hard, almost angry. Sakura looked at him with wide eyes. "Well?" he demanded. She swallowed hard and steeled her face. She would not yield so easily anymore.

"No. He has crimes he must pay for... but, he is still a ninja of Konohagakure village. He's still a teammate. But... you know Gaara, the heart can only take so much. So much rejection, indifference... coldness." In her desperation, her loneliness, she had poured out her feelings to him, feelings that had never really been more than a severe crush, feelings that were never returned. And he had stood there and smiled... and walked away. Her heart could only take so much. "Naruto and I will find him. We'll help him take his revenge whether he likes it or not. Then we'll drag him back with us to Konoha and prove him wrong for leaving."

"And then what?"

"When he's... come to his senses... we can be a team again."

"Do you think he'll accept your love then?" His face was still scornful. She took a long time to answer.

"He can have my friendship... and my support. We can be a team again. But... he lost my love a long time ago."

She became silent and tilted her head down, face hidden in shadow. The only light in the room came from a small lamp. It cast a yellowish glow on the two shinobi. Gaara was silent as well. He leaned far back into the chair with his fingers laced and propped up in front of his mouth, eyes half hidden. In deep contemplation, he slowly looked her up and down. _Maybe I pressed to hard,_ he thought, looking at her defeated form. She was very still, gazing downwards, tousled pink hair hanging over her eyes. Her hands clenched at her sides.

_No..._ he thought in surprise at his sudden realization. _Not defeated... defiant. She's raging inside._

"You've changed quite a bit," he said. "You're not as weak... What happened?" She locked eyes with him.

"I got tired of being a burden, of looking at other peoples' backs as they defended me. I got tired of not being able to do anything to save my friends when they needed it most. So I asked Tsunade to take me on as her apprentice. Now people will look at _my_ back while I fight for _them_. I... I learned that watching Lee... and Sasuke... and Naruto most of all." Gaara smiled slowly. It was only a small smile, and a little mocking, but still there.

"Naruto has a way of doing that to people doesn't he?"

"He changed you too Gaara. Look at where you are now and where you were then. Then you were a..." she broke off.

"I was a monster. That's what you were going to say, right?" She hesitated. It had been what she was going to say, but she had stopped herself. "You were right though. I was. And I still am. I'm still ruthless, Sakura, still blood thirsty. The only thing that has changed is who and what I fight for. Underneath, I'm still the same."

Something in Sakura's chest constricted as she listened to him. Her mouth quivered and her hands clenched into fists in the fabric of her soft pajama pants.

"I think you underestimate your own humanity Gaara." His eyes widened slightly. _Humanity?_ No one had ever referred to Gaara as having humanity, even if they thought it. He knew Naruto understood him, probably thought of him as human, but no one had ever actually said it to him. The words were new and unfamiliar. "I think you've spent so much of your life up till now ignoring that part of you, that you don't realize just how human you are."

They looked at each other for a long time after that, neither saying a word. Sakura silently came to the conclusion that she had struck something very deep in him.

"Maybe, Sakura, you are right. But... I will never be completely human. I will always be vicious, always have a part of the demon in me. There is no avoiding it."

"Yes, I guess you're right. That's part of you too."

"Most people would feel fear if I said something like that."

"Naruto wouldn't. Neither would Lee... n-neither do I," she stuttered. She was suddenly very uncomfortable, and very tired. In the course of their discussion, they had gone from a clinical analysis of Gaara's sleeplessness, to her personal life concerning Sasuke, to the state of Gaara's mental heath. The intimacy of the conversation unsettled her a little. _Well... if I'm going to be his friend I have to understand him like Naruto does. Now I do._

"You should go back to bed."

"Huh?"

"You look like you're about to fall asleep sitting up."

"Oh... I think you're right." She got up shakily and walked silently to the door of her room. "Are you going to continue meditating out here?" she asked before grabbing the doorknob.

"Would it bother you if I did?" She thought about it for a second.

"No," she said, and slipped into the room, closing the door behind her. Tenten was still fast asleep and soon Sakura joined her.

In the morning, Gaara was gone.

Woot. Chap three finally done! Fifteen freaking pages! Well Gaara and Sakura's relationship had taken an important step forward and the others have learned the secret of Kyuubi! Dun dun dun. Next chapter: training with the infamous Sand Siblings!

Since this is a romance, and it IS rated M, there will eventually be a lemon. But the story will progress much further before it happens. I am sort of a pervert. There's no denying it. ;

Bye for now. Review or feel my lemony fresh wrath!


	4. Running the Gauntlet

Woot. Chap four. Wow. I got lots of reviews. I love you guys! I'm so glad you all liked the scene with Gaara and Sakura. I was so proud of that scene and I loved writing it.

Anyway, this chapter is fairly short compared to the last one. Not a whole lot happens plot wise, but it was still fun to pit the characters against each other in mortal com- I mean... training. Uh, yeah... that's it. (shifty eyes)

So here's for the mildly bad news. Due to the fact that Naruto is still the only genin of the rookie nine, he will have to participate in a Chuunin Exam. This will unfortunately necessitate the creation of... (dear god the horror) original characters. DUN DUN DUN.

But FEAR NOT! They are strictly plot based. They will appear in minimal amounts in chapter five and six. There will be no Mary-Sues. This is my solemn promise. In fact, most of them are guys. They are just your average genin and they will be gone by the middle of chapter six at which point I shall place them back into the creative void of my mind and they will proceed to collect dust, never to be seen again.

Now here's the good news. There will also be important developments in chapters five and six and a new pairing will be introduced. It is not as prominent as the main Gaa/Saku pairing but it is still there. The other part of the good news is that this chapter is OC free. So, enjoy teh smexyness that is Gaara. Also, I am in the process of writing the first draft of chapter seven. You're all gonna love chapter seven.

Now, come Spencer! To the bat cave! (holds her imaginary pet naked mole rat and disappears in a poof of smoke)

------------

Chapter Four

The sun had risen above the rocky range that surrounded the village and had turned it completely yellow by the time the seven Leaf ninja had returned to the guest rooms after breakfast at a local restaurant.

"Eh, what should we do today?" asked Naruto, stretching his arms. "I know! We should go training!"

"Yosh! I will train with you too Naruto-kun!" Lee cheered.

"Geez you guys," Sakura sighed. "You don't even know where the training grounds are." Naruto and Lee momentarily deflated.

A stiff knock resounded at the door that led to the rest of the Kazekage's tower and Kakashi opened it. Behind it stood Temari, Kankuro, and Baki. In front of them was Gaara, dressed in the blue and white robes of the Kazekage.

"Hey Gaara! What's up?" Naruto shouted and bounded towards the door. Gaara's usually stern face softened a bit at the sight of his friend. Naruto stood in front of the red head, taking in his appearance. "Hey, hey. Shouldn't you be wearing your hat? You know, the pointy one?" Naruto gestured his hands above his own head, creating an imaginary Kazekage hat and grinned at Gaara mockingly. Kankuro let out a laugh like a bark and slung one of his arms over his brother's shoulders with a grin on his face that matched Naruto's.

"Heh. He doesn't like the hat. I think he shoved it in a drawer somewhere." Both Naruto and Kankuro laughed at each other and Temari snickered.

"Ah-hem." Gaara cleared his throat to get their attention. He glared at Kankuro while shrugging the taller boy's arm off his shoulders. "I've come to tell you that I received a message from your Hokage. She will be arriving in Suna the day after tomorrow. You are of course welcome to stay until she deems you need to return to your own village."

"Thank you for your hospitality," said Gai formally as he bowed. Kankuro just chuckled to himself.

"He just wants you guys to stick around cuz he has no friends."

WHACK.

Temari hit him over the head with her fan. Gaara simply glared at his brother who was now hunched over in pain and turned back to the leaf nins.

"I have to leave now," he said and started to walk away but Naruto shouted after him.

"Hey Gaara! We were gonna go train. Wanna come along?" Gaara stopped and half turned to look at them with a considering look on his face.

"Sorry, but I have things to do. I have to make arrangements for the arrival of your Hokage... so, not today Naruto, but... tomorrow. I'll train with you tomorrow Naruto."

"Yes! All right!" he shouted. "We'll see you tomorrow then. Get ready to have your butt kicked!" Gaara scoffed and walked away with a grin on his face. Baki dismissed himself and followed Gaara down the hall and out of sight.

"So..." said Naruto, speaking to the older two of the Sand siblings. "What's it like having your younger brother as Kazekage?"

"Ah, it's pretty sweet most of the time." Kankuro sighed. "But he gives us hard missions all the time too, the midget!" Everyone was silent for about two seconds before Naruto broke out into hysterical laughter. "Eh! You're one to laugh Naruto! You're the shortest midget of them all!" Kankuro shouted dramatically, pointing at Naruto. "Damn, kids are so annoying!" Temari sighed and put her hands on her hips.

"You idiot. If you hadn't noticed, Naruto's a hell of a lot taller now and our little brother isn't so little anymore. Just because you've always been taller than him doesn't make him a midget!"

"Yeah, Temari. Now that I think of it... Gaara's almost as tall as you now! And you're what... eighteen? You always were short. Gaara was just short cuz he was a late bloomer. Now _you're_ the midget of the family!" Kankuro broke out into peels of laughter until Temari decked him. "Oww..."

"So guys..." said Temari as she turned to the others with a deceptively cute smile on her face. "You said you were going to train, right? We'll show you were the three of us usually train."

"Thanks a lot Temari-san. Will you train with us too?" Sakura asked. Now that she thought of it, she hadn't trained with Naruto for two and a half years. Other than the repeat of the test with the bells and the brief encounter with the Itachi look-alike, she had not seen him fight at all. The extent of his progress was unknown.

"You know..." Temari mused to herself, "it's been a while since Kankuro and I have trained with anyone other than Gaara... I think we'll take you up on that offer."

"Yeah!" shouted Naruto. "I'll be able to pay you back for that midget crack Kankuro!"

And pay him back he did. At the end of the day Naruto had gotten several good powerful hits on Kankuro. However, the fight had been rather one sided as Kankuro was still in the process of repairing his destroyed puppets. The sand-nin's taijutsu was pretty basic, but he held out against the hyperactive blonde fairly well. He wasn't a jounin for nothing. Then again, Naruto wasn't really going all out.

Temari faired far better in her rematch against Tenten. The weapons master still had a hard time getting around Temari's long range wind attacks. Oddly enough, Sakura found an excellent sparring partner in Neji. His chakra based attacks that could corrupt inner organs fascinated Sakura's analytical mind and eventually she found herself simply sitting and listening to him explain the more intricate workings of the Jyuuken style while she took mental notes.

The rest of the day wore on with everyone trading various sparring partners. Lee took it upon himself to help Kankuro improve his poor taijutsu and everyone was especially impressed when Naruto and Sakura took to fighting each other and proceeded to demolish several large boulders in the process.

The Konoha shinobi found the most different and difficult part of training in Suna to be the change in climate. The heat of a cloudless day in the desert could drive a man mad if he had no water. The desert did make for some amazing sunsets though. As they left the training grounds at the end of the day the dying sun was gilding the buildings of Sunagakure in spectacular fire reds and oranges.

Kakashi , they found, has stayed at the tower the whole day. Even though he said it was in case the Kazekage needed him for official business, they all suspected it was just to catch up on his reading. Naruto cursed Kakashi's lazy perverted ways before stalking off to go to sleep, saying that he would need to be rested and fully energized for training with Gaara the next day.

Later that night, Sakura settled her head on her pillow as she got into bed. Tenten was already softly snoring in the bed next to her. _Geez, she went out like a light._ Her thoughts drifted for a while until she came to Naruto and how he had gone to bed early. She knew exactly why. He would be training with Gaara, another demon vessel, the Kazekage no less; the strongest ninja Sunagakure had to offer. Sakura realized that if she wanted to last any decent amount of time training with people like Naruto and Gaara, she better get to sleep soon too.

--

Breakfast the next day was at another local restaurant. The others sighed in exasperation when Naruto ordered two bowls of ramen and practically inhaled them. When Lee pointed out that ramen was hardly nutritional and not breakfast food besides, Naruto immediately defended his favorite food and added that he would need the energy for training. Sakura silently agreed.

Almost as soon as they got back to the rooms, Gai left to continue his solitary training like he had done yesterday since he figured his students were going to train with each other again. Lee had a brief internal struggle complete with dramatic tears over whether he should train with his beloved mentor or Naruto and Gaara. In the end he decided he could train with Gai another time.

"Hey guys," said Tenten as she watched Gai leave. "I was thinking that today I would go sight seeing instead of training. I mean... we hardly saw anything that one time we were here."

"Aww, where is your youthful spirit Tenten? We must keep ourselves fit and healthy all the time!" Lee protested. "Besides... as a man I cannot allow you to walk around a strange town without someone to accompany you." Tenten pursed her lips indignantly and Neji sighed.

"I'll go with her Lee." They all spun around to look at Neji, with the exception of Kakashi, who had not looked up from his copy of Icha Icha Paradise since they had gotten back from breakfast. "You go train with Naruto, Lee. I wanted to see Suna as well so I'll go with her," he said tiredly. Lee looked like he was about to respond but before he said anything there was a sharp knock at the door. Naruto threw the door open, already knowing exactly who was on the other side.

"Gaara!" he shouted enthusiastically. And indeed it was. Dressed in the dark outfit he wore into battle, Gaara stood in the hallway with his gourd strapped to his back, arms crossed in a loose stance and a faint smirk on his face.

"You guys ready to go?" he asked Naruto.

"You bet! We're gonna kick your ass!" Sakura was about to whack Naruto for his insolence but Gaara just smirked and closed his eyes.

"Well... we will see."

"Hey..." said Sakura. "Where are Temari-san and Kankuro-san?"

"Temari went to meet your Hokage at the border and Kankuro has taken today and tomorrow off to completely repair Karasu and his other puppets."

"Oh, I see."

"Would you rather they were here as well?" His icy-green eyes seemed to be asking an unspoken question. It was the same unspoken question he had asked the night she had found him meditating. When he asked if it would bother her if she knew he was still in the sitting room while she slept, he was really asking, _Do you trust me?_ It took her no time at all to decide that she did.

"Not at all. I just assumed they would be here," she said and shrugged. "So..." She glanced behind her. "I guess it's just me, you, Naruto, and Lee today."

"All right! Come on Sakura-chan, let's go!" And with that the four of them left, saying goodbye to Neji and Tenten, who said she would try to find some small souvenirs for them in the city.

Gaara led them to a different training ground than the one Temari and Kankuro had used the previous day. It wasn't even a training ground really, just the flat top of part of the mountain range that surrounded Sunagakure. The terrain was mostly rugged flat rock strewn with boulders and, amazingly, one or two hardy trees that somehow resisted the harsh climate.

"So..." began Naruto as he warmed up his arms and legs with stretches. "How are we gonna do this? We could pair off and spar or..." An evil grin contorted his face. "Or we could all gang up on Gaara at once. I bet if all three of us attacked at once we could take him in no time!" Naruto's devilish grin turned to a foolish one as he looked in Gaara's direction. The impassive red head simply stood there and shrugged. "Ah! Think you're so tough huh Gaara?" Naruto mocked. "Come on Fuzzy Eyebrows, Sakura-chan, we can take him no problem!"

"Naruto-kun, your spirit of youth is amazing as ever!" Lee cheered. Sakura laughed at them and tightened the straps on her shuriken holster.

"You guys can come at me how ever you like," Gaara stated calmly with his arms crossed over his chest, "but I want to see one thing first." They looked at him questioningly. "Sakura. Just by herself. I've fought the two of you before, but I've never fought Sakura" She stared at him, wide-eyed for a moment. _He wants to fight me?_ "Show me what you can do Sakura."

Her slightly surprised face shifted to a confident smirk and she quickly grabbed her black gloves out of her supply pouch. Naruto and Lee stood off to the side by a boulder to watch as she pulled them on and flexed her fingers.

"Ok Gaara, you got it. But I probably wont be fast enough to get around your defense." They stood several meters apart, facing each other over an expanse of flat ground.

"I'll try to relax the automatic shield a little, slow it down to give you a chance."

"Eh? Can you really do that?" Lee asked from the sidelines.

"I've slowly been gaining more control over the involuntary response of the sand. Eventually I hope to be able to control it completely, switch it on and off at will."

"Well then," Sakura called. "Let's get started!"

Taking off like a shot, she ran straight for Gaara. She knew a sneak attack would be pointless at the moment and he had wanted to see what she could do. So that's what she'd show him.

Within three feet of him Sakura pulled her fist back to throw a punch and the sand rushed out of the gourd to defend. She had been right. She was too slow to get past it right off the bat, but she would do her best anyway. Her clenched fist connected with the sand wall.

Gaara had been waiting for her to avoid hitting the hard sand barrier, so he was mildly surprised when she didn't dodge or pull away. He watched in momentary awe as a ripple spread outward over the surface of the sand from the nexus of her strike. Her punch had let loose a shock wave of chakra that moved right through the sand to the edges of the barrier. _She certainly couldn't do **that** when we were genin. But even back then it was obvious to anyone that she had excellent chakra control. Looks like she's finally put it to good use._

Gaara grinned maniacally at this new challenge as she jumped back to strike again. She watched the sand barrier slowly melt and shift again, revealing blood red hair, then black rimmed eyes, and then his smirk. Sakura was gone again in a flash. Gaara's eyes opened wide as pink hair flashed in his peripheral vision. _Behind me!_

He turned just in time to see her up in the air, level with his face, and her boot swung outward. The sand barely caught her foot. Normally it would have been faster, but he had slowed it down as much as he could manage to give her a chance. She was definitely taking advantage of that. A glint of metal and he dodged a kunai... with an exploding tag attached to it. The blast went off behind him and even though the sand barrier came up again he could still feel the heat of the blaze. _She knew I would dodge so she put the tag on an extremely short fuse so it would detonate behind me. If I hadn't blocked it, she would have used **me** as a shield._

"Hey Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted. "Let us have a go too!" Sakura sighed and let down her guarded stance. She headed toward Lee and Naruto and Gaara began walking beside her.

"That hit with the chakra... that was impressive."

"Well... maybe. But it didn't do a whole lot against you, did it?" He said nothing and stopped walking.

"So... weren't you guys going to come at me all at once?" he asked mockingly. All he got in response was three confident smirks.

It was a good thing they were practically in the middle of nowhere because all of their attacks were meant to cause major damage and by about four o'clock the whole area was nothing but loose rubble.

After Lee had nearly beaten him in the preliminaries three years ago, Gaara had decided to learn taijutsu. If the time came when he would have to fight an enemy with the same speed as Lee, he wanted to be prepared.

Eventually they slowed down enough so that the sand didn't get in the way and Lee could show Gaara some more advanced taijutsu moves. Gaara was an extremely fast learner.

Hours later when the sky had turned orange with the approaching sunset, the four of them sat in the combined shade of a large boulder and one of the gnarled rugged trees. Naruto leaned with his back against the tree, breathing deeply with a smile on his face. Gaara sat in a similar position next to him with his arms crossed over his chest. Sakura and Lee sat with their backs to the boulder. Lee was hardly fazed by the rigorous sparring session but Sakura was panting. She gazed up into the hardy foliage of the tree that was leaning over her head.

"Gaara..?" He opened one eye to look at her. "Where does Suna get its water?"

"There is an enormous aquifer hundreds of meters underground. Suna was built here because of it as well as for the protection provided by the mountains. That's where we get our water."

"Does it ever rain here?"

"Yes, actually. We do get rain." Sakura sat up to look at him.

"Really?"

"About every four years there is a weather system that moves in from the west and it rains non stop for about a week."

"Weird..." she said while smiling up at a passing cloud. Naruto stretched his arms into the air.

"Ahh... that was a great work-out!" he said. Lee shot up from his seat beside Sakura.

"Indeed it was! You are such worthy opponents! Even you Sakura-san. You've gotten so strong and lovely!" He clutched his fist to his chest dramatically. She sweatdropped and scratched the back of her head sheepishly with a nervous smile on her face. She had been so glad when Lee had finally stopped pursuing her romantically. But despite that, he had remained a steadfast friend. She couldn't help admiring his nobility for it.

"Well guys..." she said. "It's getting late. I think we should be heading back now."

The sun was in fact quickly approaching the western horizon and the four shinobi all headed back to the Kazekage's tower, leaping from rock to rock, rooftop to rooftop.

Sakura never noticed that Gaara watched her the whole time, a thoughtful look on his face.

--

A fairly large group of people stood waiting in the main entrance of the building that served as the Kazekage's headquarters. To the side were the Leaf shinobi. Gaara, dressed once again in his official robes but still lacking the hat, stood at the front with his brother on his left, and Baki to his right. The elderly chief council members were standing in a group behind him. The reason for the gathering appeared within minutes.

Tsunade, the Godaime Hokage, strode into the building. She never seemed to wear the robes of the Hokage and now was no exception. Temari had met the Leaf Hokage at the border of Wind Country and escorted her to the hidden ninja village. Behind Tsunade was none other than Shikamaru, looking as lazy as ever. His annoyed expression spoke clearly of what he thought of the whole situation: troublesome. To Naruto's surprise, Jiraiya was also behind Tsunade. Naruto had thought he'd left to gather more information but apparently the situation warranted his presence.

"Ah... Kazekage-sama. It's good to see that you're back in action," Tsunade said calmly. He nodded in response.

"Yes. Suna owes you its thanks for the help you sent."

Temari migrated from where she had been standing next to the Hokage to be near her brothers. Shikamaru watched her lazily and drifted over to speak with Naruto.

"Hey Lazy-ass!" he greeted. Shikamaru just grinned and shook his head.

"Geez Naruto... do you have to be so noisy all the time? So troublesome."

"Heheh. Look who's talking. I thought you said all women were troublesome, and yet you're following Temari again." Shikamaru scowled.

"Che... that's not why I'm here fool. Hokage-sama asked me to come. This whole thing's about what to do about the Chuunin Exams. I'm a proctor remember? Plus I'm one of the envoys to Suna."

"Yeah yeah. Whatever."

"Shikamaru!" Tsunade barked. "Let's go now. This meeting's important. You too Kakashi, Gai." Shikamaru sighed and walked back over to the Hokage with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He, Jiraiya, Kakashi and Gai followed her as Gaara and the counsil members headed down a hallway and out of sight. Temari and Kankuro turned to talk to the five remaining teenagers.

"Well..." said Temari. "They'll be in that meeting for a while."

"What? Do we really have to wait!" Naruto cried.

"Afraid so shorty. Nothing you can do about that," said Kankuro. Naruto fumed at the "shorty" comment, but he let it slide. Really, he'd gotten much taller lately. He was just short in comparison to Kankuro.

In the end the seven of them decided to go eat lunch to pass the time. Naruto was fidgety and nervous the whole time and at first Sakura couldn't figure out way.

Then it hit her. _If the Chuunin Exams are canceled, Naruto will have to wait even longer to pass. He's still the only one of our group that's still a genin._

An hour later they returned to the tower and waited for the two Kages to finish their meeting. When they finally did, Gaara only briefly greeted the other leaf nins before speed -walking away in the direction of his office. Temari sighed and apologized for him.

"He's still got a hell of a lot to do right now. I think the stress is getting to him." With that said, she and Kankuro left.

"Well...?" Naruto questioned impatiently, looking at Shikamaru. Tsunade strode up to them before he could answer.

"The Chuunin Exams are not going to be canceled. They will be held in Konoha as planned two weeks from now," she said and looked at Naruto. "You better pass brat," she said sternly.

"You bet I will old hag!" he shouted. Her eye twitched a little at the name but she just smirked.

"Good. I'll hold you to your word," she said and walked away, led by a Suna shinobi to some unknown destination in the building. Shikamaru filled them in on the meeting when they got back to the guest rooms.

"Jiraiya-sama said that there seems to be no movement from the Akatsuki right now. They've sorta melted back into the woodwork, so to speak. He thinks they probably wont make any sort of move for a while since two of their members are dead now."

They were all in the sitting room now except for Tsunade, who had been given one of the guest rooms reserved for foreign nobles and dignitaries. Jiraiya had been offered one as well but he just decided to share the fourth empty room with Shikamaru. Said lazy ninja was draping one arm over the back of the sofa as he spoke.

"Besides, Konoha wasn't the one that was attacked, and Suna has decided they can't show any weakness. That's why the exams are gonna take place in Konoha as scheduled and the Kazekage will still come to watch the final matches. But I think both our villages are gonna be on higher guard from now on." The others nodded when he finished speaking.

Tsunade had decided that all the Leaf shinobi were going back to Konoha the next morning. Sakura and Naruto both felt that it was a rather abrupt departure, but there was nothing they could do.

--

The next morning found one Hokage, one Sannin, three jounin, four chuunin, and one genin of Leaf standing outside the rocky walls of Sunagakure. The Kazekage, his siblings, and surprisingly Chiyo, had all come to bid them farewell.

"Well Gaara," said Naruto. "We'll see you around I guess."

"I'll be in Konoha in a little over a month for the Chuunin Exam finals. I assume you will be entering?"

"Yeah. Ero-sennin here kept me away for so long that I have to catch up."

"Brat! Don't call me that!" the white-haired hermit shouted. Naruto simply stuck out his tongue and and pulled down his lower eye-lid. Jiraiya hit him over the head.

As Naruto recovered from the lump on his head the others all exchanged their farewells. When all that could be said had been said, the Leaf shinobi started their three day journey back to Konoha.

Sakura and Naruto took one last look back at Gaara and his brother and sister before the siblings ceased to be anything more than colored dots on the monochromatic background of sand.

-----------

Bam. And chap four is finally done! Yaay! Took me long enough. Stupid homework and stuff. Anyway, I changed the place where this chapter cut off to make it a little longer and it's better this way anyway.

Chapter seven is well under way on paper. You guys are gonna love chapter seven. The first major arc to the plot line starts in that chap. It's also gonna have lots of humor in it.

A few notes concerning the deviation of this fic from the canon:

First, as you can see, Chiyo did not die in my version.

Second, because this fic deviated from a specific chapter and for plot reasons, Sakura never got information from Sasori about one of his spies on Orochimaru. That is obviously going to be coming up in the actual manga so I'm not going to use it. Plus, I already have the outline of the plot written.

Third, Deidara actually _is_ dead in this fic. He was killed by Naruto and Kakashi. But assume it was similar to what happened with Naruto and the Kyuubi's chakra when he thought Gaara was dead in the actual manga. Kakashi also has the same new Sharingan as he does in the manga. Anyway, my point is that there are now only seven members of the Akatsuki.

One more note:

A sennin, in the context of the Naruto series, refers to a hermit: one who lives alone or roams the country side and is considered to be wise and knowledgeable. Naruto calls Jiraiya "Ero-sennin" meaning "perverted hermit" because the prefix "ero" means perverted and Jiraiya actually is a hermit. He's also called the Toad Sennin, or toad hermit, for obvious reasons.

This differs from the term "sannin" or so I have come to understand. I could be wrong. In this case, I believe "sannin" is the words "san", which means three, and "nin", a shortened form of "ninja" commonly used in Naruto. The term "sannin" therefore refers to "three ninja" as in the Legendary Three, which is what Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru are called.

Well, that's all for now folks! Expect the next chapter in the coming week. Please review! It makes me squee.

I think I may be comma happy. O.o'


	5. The Test Begins

Yosh. Chapter five yo!

Wow. Someone out there who said they hated Gaara/Sakura pairings said that they actually liked my story. Wow. I'm flattered. Just remember, if you start hating it again you don't have to keep reading. But thank you. I myself can only tolerate one or two Gaara pairings. Personally I think Sakura is just so much more kick-ass now that I think she can handle Gaara. (BTW, Gaara will unfortunately not be in this chapter. But he will be in the next one! squee)

By the way, I recently read chapters 282 and 284. They came out in time for me to tweak what I'd originally wrote in the draft of this chapter. If you have read them then know all the characters appear in my fic as they do in the cannon EXCEPT for Hinata. I'm changing her appearance from the cannon a little and I decided to give her just a bit more self confidence. Not a lot mind you, but a little. I figured she would have at least gotten a little surer of herself in two and a half years.

With that said, I give you chapter five.

--------

Chapter Five

It was a straight shot through River Country due Northeast from Suna to Konoha. As the party traveled farther north and out of the desert the climate started to change. The humidity rose and the temperature dropped.

The first time they had taken the Chuunin Exams in Konoha it had been late spring. This time it would be early winter. Though it rarely snowed in Konoha, it did get colder during this time of year. They all felt the chilly winds on their faces on the last day of the journey as the great gates of Konoha loomed out of the forest. The gates stood open as was normal during the day and the ten shinobi entered their home village.

"Ah... it's good to be back, ne Sakura-chan?" Naruto said as he stretched his arms above his head.

"Yeah. It's still nice to travel outside the village sometimes though. But I guess you've been doing that for the last two and a half years huh?"

"Yup. Hey let's go get ramen from Ichiraku! I'm starved."

Sakura knew he wouldn't leave her alone until she said yes, so she she sighed and relented under the condition that it would not be a date. He agreed and they said goodbye to Kakashi and Gai's team. Tsunade left to return to the Hokage tower and Jiraiya snuck away suspiciously in the direction of the baths once she was gone. Shikamaru strolled away lazily to find his team.

Naruto grinned happily as he and Sakura walked slowly toward Ichiraku. There was a surprise waiting for them when they got there.

"Ah! Kiba! Shino! Hinata-chan! Hey guys!" he called out to the members of Team 8 minus Kurenai. The three had taken to eating in town together regularly after training. Naruto suddenly blinked in bewilderment. "Holy crap! Is that Akamaru?" he exclaimed. The once cute puppy that had ridden in Kiba's jacket for as long as Naruto could remember was now at least three feet tall at the shoulder. Considering his size though, he was still cute and puppy-ish. Kiba himself had ditched the hoodie in favor of fitted black pants and a black jacket, and even less of Shino's face was now visible than before due to a high collared coat, a hooded jacket and the usual sunglasses. But Sakura smiled at Naruto's reaction to the member of Team 8 that had changed the most, if not outwardly.

Hinata had grown a few inches taller since Naruto had last seen her. Her hair was no longer cropped short in the back, but was long and draped over the back of her chuunin vest which she wore over a long-sleeved purple shirt. She liked the vest very much. Her father had grown so proud of her when she had received it. He and Neji had even started training her in the more advanced techniques of the Jyuuken style as well as helping her to further develop her own style. But most importantly, she had gained a bit more self confidence since Naruto had recognized her during the mission to find the Bikouchuu.

Hinata immediately blushed and smiled when she saw Naruto. "Hello N-Naruto-kun," she said.

"Hey Hinata-chan! I haven't seen you in so long! You're even a chuunin now! You look great!" Naruto obviously had no idea of what such a compliment would do to her and she immediately started stuttering incoherently.

"Hey, hey, Naruto!" Kiba shouted. "What about us? Don't we look stronger too? Me and Akamaru are chuunin too." Naruto scoffed and stuck out his tongue.

"Maybe Akamaru. But you still look as weak as ever Kiba!"

"Look who's talking! Aren't you still a genin? Its been so long. Where have you been eh, Naruto?"

Naruto brushed off the genin comment in favor of telling them all about where he had been with Jiraiya and the mission to save Gaara. Kiba whistled in awe and complained about not having been assigned to help as well. Sakura added her parts of the story where necessary and the five teenagers ended up spending a good few hours at the ramen shop trading stories about what had happened in Konoha while Naruto was gone.

"Naruto," said Shino, who had up till then, said nothing other than 'hello'.

"Hm?"

"You are going to enter the Chuunin Exams this time correct?"

"Yeah. I was away for so long that I've gotta catch up with you guys."

"You were being trained by a Sannin. I'm sure you have enough strength to pass, but don't forget to work on strategy. Remember that Shikamaru was the first one of us to become a chuunin and he forfeited his match in the finals."

"Don't worry! Ill pound some sense into him!" Sakura shouted as she pulled Naruto into a headlock.

"Ahh! Sakura-chan! Come on! I didn't put up with the old pervert all this time for nothing! Owww... let go!" he wined.

"So you learned some sense from him eh, Naruto?" Sakura asked mockingly. "Not just how to be an even bigger pervert?" Naruto pouted indignantly.

"No! I learned stuff from him! And I'm not a pervert!"

"Sure. And the Sexy no jutsu is a super non-perverted technique right?"

"Hmph," he pouted and crossed his arms stubbornly.

"N-Naruto-kun... um..."

"Eh, Hinata-chan?"

"What are you going to do about a team?"

"Huh?"

"Ah, clueless as ever," Kiba sighed. "You have to have a three man cell to participate in the exams, right? Sakura's the only other one on your team and she's already a chuunin, so you cant take the exam with her."

"He's right," said Sakura. "You'll have to combine with a team that's already had one of their members become a chuunin."

"So I'll be on a team with people I don't even know?"

"Yeah. Sometimes they have to rearrange teams just for the exam. But its only temporary," she said. "If Kakashi-sensei knows that your gonna take the exam, he'll find a team for you."

--

As it turned out, the team Naruto was placed with consisted of two other boys who were a little over a year younger than him. The only girl on the team had graduated at the previous exam (which had also been their first exam) in Amegakure, the village hidden in the rain. She wasn't talkative, but she was a good leader and could keep both her teammates in line without too much trouble. Naruto wasn't so lucky. He didn't have the patience for the other two and nearly three days were spent simply trying to get along with them.

The first was Takero, who came from a small clan called the Nokeda clan, which was know for talent in genjutsu. He had sleek brown hair pulled back into a loose ponytail and light brown eyes with a fairly pleasant demeanor. The other was named Naota and he came from the Owaru clan. He emitted a cool, detached aura, always calm and seemingly disinterested. His clan was known for espionage and silent killing. In accordance to his family's chosen area of expertise he wore all black and his jet black hair was cut short for practicality. Naota loved to be able to blend in and work undetected. The only unique feature about him was his eyes, which were a striking ice blue. Their unusual color sometimes made him more distinguishable in a crowd and it bothered him a little, but he still generally managed to remain covert and that was how he liked it.

At first they had mocked Naruto because he was older than them and still a genin. Naruto practically exploded in anger and told them he had been training with one of the legendary Sannin for two and a half years. He then proceeded to rip right through the bark of a huge tree with a Rasengan, sending the top of the tree crashing to the forest floor.

That shut them up.

Takero and Naota soon realized what an asset Naruto was. Firstly, he had taken the exams in Konoha before. The exams differed in Amegakure so without him they wouldn't have known what to expect. Second was that he was replacing their other team member, Sonata Chihiro. She was usually the one in their team with the strong ninjutsu attacks and Naruto could certainly compensate for her loss.

With the knowledge of the exam that Naruto brought with him, they were able to devise a strategy for the first part of the test. Takero and Naota pounded strategy and planning into his brain for days before the exam.

Once Naruto had gained their respect, the three boys became friends. Takero took to calling Naruto "Boss" while Naota called him "Naruto-sempai."

There were twelve teams participating from Konoha. Ten teams had been sent from Suna as well as five from Hidden Rain, two from Hidden Grass, and one from Hidden Waterfall. And for the first time in years, Konoha had invited teams from Hidden Cloud to participate as well. A few years ago, a new Raikage had been elected and the political strife between Konohagakure and Kumogakure had abated drastically. Two teams from Hidden Cloud were sent as a gesture of good will.

Sakura, the Rookie Nine, and Gai's team all came to wish Naruto good luck on the day of the first exam. Sonata Chihiro and her jounin sensei came to support Naota and Takero.

The first part of the test was the same as it had been when Team 7 had taken it, but Ibiki was not proctoring this time. Instead it was none other than Shikamaru who stood at the front of the exam hall explaining the rules.

The plan that the three boys had developed worked extraordinarily well. First Naota used his skills to determine which of the test takers were plants. Once that had been established, he signaled silently to Takero, who was sitting several seats to Naota's right and two rows down. Then Takero used one of his clan's advanced genjutsu techniques. Since genjutsu primarily worked with the senses of the brain, Takero could connect his sense of vision to that of one of the fake test takers in the examination hall. Once he did that he cast an illusion in front of Naruto and Takero's eyes so they could see what he saw. All that was left after that was to copy the answers and wait for the trick tenth question. Needless to say, the first part of the test was a snap for the three boys.

Of the twelve teams from Konoha, seven teams passed the first part of the exam. Five teams from Suna passed along with two of the teams from Hidden Rain, both teams from Hidden Cloud, one team from Hidden Grass and the one team from Hidden Waterfall.

The boys soon found themselves standing outside the gates of the Forest of Death. Anko was proctoring again. She seemed to enjoy sending kids to their possible demise.

All the teams filled out safety waivers in exchange for a scroll. Takero hid their Heaven scroll in his pack. They were stationed at gate 36 and when the signal was given, they took off.

--

"Ow geez! It's been three whole days and we still haven't found a team who still has their Earth scroll!" Naruto cried in frustration.

"Chill boss," said Takero. "We just have to wait for Naota to find one."

"Yeah. How long has he been gone anyway?"

Takero glanced at his watch. "About two hours. He should be back soon."

Takero and Naruto sat in a small clearing in the space between two gigantic gnarled trees, sipping water from their canteens and waiting for Naota to return. They had agreed it would be Naota's job to find a team that had an Earth scroll using his stealth skills. Then the three boys would attack together.

"Hey guys," said a cool voice from behind them. Takero and Naruto turned to see Naota, slightly sweaty and covered in grime (just like the rest of them), but with a smile on his face. "Good news. I found a team with the scroll we need. They're from Hidden Cloud. They're close by."

"Great! Let's go!" Naruto shouted. The three boys were gone in a flash as they took to the trees.

Naruto saw the three Cloud genin first. They were sitting in a clearing, apparently resting. There were two boys and a girl. The girl had long dark hair held in a ponytail and one of the boys had short, spiky, blue-grey hair and a stern face. The other had short wavy black hair. The three Leaf nins crouched in a tree, listening.

"That was lucky that we found that team back there with an Earth scroll, eh Monji?" said the girl to the boy with the blueish grey hair.

"Ehh, but we still have to find a team with a Heaven scroll to replace the one we lost, Haruko," said the boy with the short black hair. She sighed and leaned back against the tree. Takero shifted in his seat on the tree branch and the blue-grey haired boy's head shot up.

"Did you guys hear that?" he asked.

"Huh?" asked the girl.

"Damn, they heard us," Naruto cursed. "Takero, do it now." Takero nodded and formed a few seals. The sight of the forest floor blurred and shifted as the illusion started to take effect. The black haired boy swayed on his feet and fell over with a thud, hitting his head on a rock.

"Ameru!" cried the girl as she tried to move to help her comrade, but the illusion was effecting her senses and disorienting her, slowing her down. The boy called Monji quickly put up a seal in front of his face.

"Kai! Release!" he shouted. "Haruko! Release the genjutsu! We're under attack!" The girl quickly made the seal to release the illusion and raced to stand over Ameru's limp body protectively, kunai in hand. Suddenly Naruto, Takero, and Naota burst from the trees and separated. Takero and Naota went to surround the girl and her unconscious companion while Naruto faced off against the boy called Monji. The girl, Haruko, tried valiantly to defend herself against Naota and Takero but she was outnumbered. She pulled out several blades and some good taijutsu moves, but while Takero distracted her from the front, Naota came up behind her and knocked her out with a clean blow to the back of the head. She fell, and Takero chivalrously caught her and laid her next to her other teammate.

"Haruko! Dammit!" Monji cursed. Takero and Naota knew they could leave Naruto to finish the job. Naruto charged head long towards Monji and swung his fist. Monji dodged and gripped Naruto's shoulder with one hand while making seals with the left.

"Lightning Style!" he shouted and electricity coursed from the Cloud-nin's hand and into Naruto's body. He screamed before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"A clone? Damn! Where'd he go?" Several Naruto clones suddenly appeared and two skidded under Monji and kicked him upwards. The other clones joined in in the aerial assault.

"U!"

"Zu!"

"Ma!"

"Ki!" they shouted as each one landed a kick. Two more clones came from above and kicked simultaneously.

"Naruto Rendan!" they shouted and Monji was delivered two powerful blows downward. He hit the ground with a sickening thud and the sound of breaking bones rang through the air as a crater formed from the impact of the body.

"Uuuhhgh," he moaned and shakily got to his feet, cradling his broken ribs. Naruto began to charge again.

"Wait! Stop!" he cried. "You... you won. I cant win against all three of you. Please..." he slowly fished the Earth scroll out of his pouch and tossed it to Naruto, who caught it with one hand. "...just take the scroll and let me get my teammates out of here..." The boy limped slightly over two his two comrades. Naota and Takero backed away cautiously as Monji gathered his two fallen teammates and slung their arms over his shoulders.

"Hey, kid..." Naruto called. The boy turned slightly to look at him. "That lightning thing was pretty cool. I bet you guys will pass the next exam if you don't make this one." Monji looked at Naruto strangely. "Come on Takero, Naota, let's go." They nodded and made their way over to him. Naruto took one last look at the Cloud shinobi before he leapt into the trees. Traveling in the direction of the tower, Naruto couldn't help but feel like the fight hadn't been very fair. Their opponents had been weakened from a recent fight. Then again, that was probably why Naota had picked them. Fighting a stronger opponent could have resulted in injuries. Besides, the job of a ninja was to accomplish the mission in the easiest and fastest way possible. It may have bothered Naruto a little, but in the end that's all there was to it.

It took several hours to reach the tower. There were still two days left of the test and Naruto, Takero, and Naota had no choice but to wait. Naruto practically went stir crazy with nothing to do and no ramen to eat. The only way to pass the time was with a deck of cards Takero had brought, but Naruto got tired of playing Go Fish very, very, quickly. His only recourse was one of his old favorite hobbies: pranks. The old favorites came back in full swing; water buckets and erasers in doors, and trip wires that could hang a ninja from the ceiling by his ankle if he wasn't careful. Most of the ninja in the tower were skilled enough to avoid the traps but there was still a collective sigh of relief when the five days of the test were up and Naruto stopped pranking people.

And so, Naruto, Takero, and Naota found themselves lined up in front of chuunin and jounin proctors including Shikamaru. Naruto tuned out the Godaime's speech since he'd heard it from the Third before and took the time to scan the people in the room. Only four teams had made it out of the forest; his own, another Konoha team he didn't recognize, one from Suna, and one from... Naruto did a double take. There was Monji and his team. Monji was supporting his ribs, and it looked like the girl had broken her arm, but they had somehow managed to get two scrolls after Naruto's team had attacked them. They had apparently just made it under the time limit and Monji's hair was matted with dirt and leaves. Naruto realized that Monji was glaring right at him.

There were only four teams this time, which meant preliminaries would not be necessary.

Once, the Godaime's speech was over, ANBU squads escorted the teams out of the forest. Shikamaru went along with Naruto and Sakura, Lee, Ino, and Chouji were waiting for them outside the forest.

"I'll see you guys later!" Naruto shouted and waved as Takero and Naota left, before walking over to join Sakura and the others.

"Well I see you guys got through the second part of the test ok, eh Naruto?" said Sakura as they began heading back towards the village.

"Yup," he grinned. "Now all that's left is the finals."

"H-hello Naruto-kun," said a soft voice.

"Oh hey, Hinata-chan!" he cheered, bounding over to her. Sakura was pleased to see the girl wasn't stuttering as much around Naruto as she used to or fiddling with her fingers. Her hands were still held up in front of her body, but she wasn't poking the fingers together or averting her eyes from Naruto's gaze. _Naruto, you have no idea how much you've helped her._

Naruto began telling Hinata all about what had happened in the Forest of Death and she listened with a smile on her face. Then Inner Sakura got an idea. A wonderfully devious idea. She would play match maker. Inner Sakura cackled evilly. _Muahahahah! They'll never see it coming! Ok maybe they will, but it wont matter! By the time they realize it, it will be too late! Buahahaha!_ While Sakura was plotting deviously, Hinata had gone home and Naruto came over and interrupted her inner dialogue.

"Hey, Sakura-chan, you in there?" he asked, waving a hand in front of her face. She snapped back to reality.

"Oh... ah, heh heh. Sorry Naruto, I zoned out. So, what were you and Hinata talking about?"

"Oh, the exam, random stuff..." He linked his fingers behind his head and squinted up at the sky with a contemplative look on his face. "Is it just me, or is Hinata-chan more... I dunno... different?"

_Yes! Time to put my plan into action!_ Inner Sakura ranted to herself. "Well... while you were gone Hinata got a lot stronger and more confident. She's really proud of being a chuunin now and she looks really good in that chuunin vest, ne?"

"Yeah, I guess," he said as he cocked his head to the side.

"Plus, you know, she's a really nice person."

"Well I knew that."

_Haha! You are falling into my trap Naruto!_ "And she always listens."

"Yeah."

"You should ask her out."

"Eh?" He turned to her in astonishment.

"Yeah. I think you should do that."

"But but... what... Hinata-chan doesn't..."

"Well you'll never know if she does or not if you don't ask. Just ask her to go get ramen with you or something." He scrunched up his face in deep thought, scratching the back of his head.

"Well... I dunno... maybe..."

"Well, see ya later Naruto!" she shouted suddenly and began walking briskly toward her home.

"Huh? Oh... see ya Sakura-chan!" he called after her. He could have sworn he heard her laughing maniacally as she sprinted away, but he must have imagined it. He slowly headed back to his tiny apartment with a lot of things on his mind. Hinata was one of them, but before he could worry about that, he had to concentrate on what was coming in a month. The Chuunin Exam finals. He smiled to himself. In a month he would become a chuunin.

------

Ah, there you have it. And you guessed it! The minor pairing will be Naruto/Hinata! Yay! They're so cute together. Sorry it took so long to get this up but I had school work and I got briefly addicted to non-stop fic reading this week. Sorry .'. But the good news it that I wrote like crazy this week and the draft of chapter eight in nearly completed. It's one of the more serious chapters. It will balance chapter seven, which has more humor in it. Damn that chapter was fun to write.

I'm sorry this chapter was pitifully short. I apologize. Wow... I made Inner Sakura psycho O.o

By the way, "sempai" is a respectful term for an upperclassman or someone older and more experienced.

Anyway, next chapter will have Gaara! Yay!

Please read and review! It makes me squee, not to mention write more.


	6. Temari's Request

Weeeeeeee chapter six! This one is much longer than the last one, and its got GAARA! Yaaaaay! Long live the Gaara/Sakura! . 

Thanks for all the reviews, and I yet again apologize for the lame last chapter and how long it took me to get it done. This chapter will be the last with OC's for a while.

Hmmm, someone brought up a good point in a review and said that Konohamaru and his team should be taking the exam this time. Actually, I completely forgot about that. (Authoress laughs nervously) But now that I think of it, it's probably best to say that they didn't enter this time because they didn't have enough experience. After all, if we think about it, Gai waited an extra year to enter his team for the first Chuunin Exams and the others were talented enough to be entered, or at least their sensei's thought so. So I guess the Rookie Nine are just special that way. But thanks for that review anyway.

One other reviewer said something about Gaara being a raccoon demon and I have to repeat that this is _not_ true. Tanuki are related to dogs. They just look sort of like raccoons. The Japanese word for raccoon is arai-guma. Sorry if that earlier note confused you. '

Thanks to Fiona X. Fyre for also trying to give me link to Hinata's new outfit. It didn't work, but that's ok because I have that chapter on my comp. She's so cute! But I just wanted to tweak her a little for this story. She looks the same except that she wears a long-sleeved purple shirt and a chuunin vest instead of that jacket. That's the only difference. I wanted her to show off that lovely vest and her curves. ( O.o boy has she got curves...) GO HINATA!

By the way, for the sheer insanity of it, three cameos of myself and two of my best friends, KageNoKatana and FunnyCatGirl, will appear briefly in this chapter. We don't even talk to the main characters. It's just for the HILARIOUS INSANITY of it. We'll be fairly easy to spot, but I'll give you a cookie if you can guess which one is me.

Anyway... lend me your wisdom oh Great Mabootoo! (worships a bowl of green Jell-O) ONWARD! (damn I leave long notes... sorry )

--------

Chapter Six

The alarm clock was practically screaming in her ear no matter how hard she pulled the pillow down over her head. _Enough of this..._

WHAM!

The alarm clock was no more.

_Ahhh... that's better,_ Sakura thought to herself. Still, she couldn't help the feeling that there was something she had to do... but what was it? A little light bulb went off and she sat bolt upright in bed, throwing the sheets off herself. Her eyes darted to the calendar on her bedroom wall. It had all the days crossed out up until one little square with a big red circle drawn around it.

"Shit! The exam finals are today! Naruto's gonna be so pissed if I'm late!" She sprang out of bed and dashed out of her room to the stairs, jumping the last few steps on her way to the kitchen. Her mother was already seated at the kitchen table eating rice and miso soup and doing a crossword puzzle out of the Saturday news paper. Her faded red hair was drawn back into a loose knot at the top of her head and she was dressed in an old fuzzy bathrobe. Haruno Kanna was not a shinobi like her daughter. Sakura had inherited her drive to become a ninja from her father, Toji, who was retired and probably still asleep in the upstairs bedroom since it was a Saturday. Her father had been the first in several generations of the Haruno family to become a shinobi.

"Sakura, there's rice and miso soup ready," her mother said without looking up from her crossword puzzle.

"Thanks mom," she said and hastily scooped some rice and miso soup into bowls.

"What's the rush, honey?" her mother asked, finally putting down the paper.

"I don't wanna be late to watch Naruto's matches in the Chuunin Exam finals today."

"Oh that's today? Do you think he'll win?"

"Of course he will mom! He can kick major butt!" she shouted through a mouthful of rice. Kanna chuckled as her daughter shoved the rest of the rice into her mouth and rushed back up the stairs.

Sakura rifled through her closet, pulling out her usual outfit and heading into the bathroom. Stripping off her soft pajamas and stepping into the shower, Sakura washed her short pink hair and ran her fingers through it. Ever since their first Chuunin Exam, she had kept it short. Kin had been right; she had been so preoccupied with her looks and trying to impress Sasuke that she had neglected her ninja studies. That was a thing of the past now and she trained harder than ever. She stepped out of the shower and began towel drying her hair. It may have been slightly spiky and not as shiny as it used to be, but it didn't bother her anymore.

With her hair close enough to dry, she put on her clothes, grabbed her hitai-ate and a shuriken holster, and walked out of her room.

"Bye mom!" she called as she slipped on her ninja sandals and leg guards at the door.

"Bye honey! Cheer hard for Naruto-kun," her mother called from the kitchen.

"I will!" she shouted, and dashed out the front door. Sakura was so glad that her mother and father had finally started to like Naruto. They had never actually met him in person, but Sakura's stories about him had finally swayed their opinion of the Kyuubi vessel.

Sakura walked briskly down one of the main roads of Konoha towards the arena that the finals would be held in. In her hurry to get out of the house, she had given herself ample time to get there. As she got closer to the arena, more people were walking down the road, but not very many. It showed just how early she was.

"Sakura..." said a low voice from behind her. She turned around to look at the person who had addressed her in slight shock.

"Wow..."

It was Gaara... or at least she thought it was him. All she could see were his eyes. He was not only wearing the robes of the Kazekage, but also the hat and a cloth hung over his nose and mouth as well. For an instant she saw the image of a different Kazekage, the Kazekage that had been at her first Chuunin Exam... Gaara's father. But he pulled down the cloth to reveal the rest of his face and the image was gone, leaving just Gaara. Just the serious boy she knew.

"You look... official," she said, slightly amazed. "I thought you didn't like the hat..."

"You're right. I don't usually wear it, but I thought I should for something diplomatic like this." And he certainly did look diplomatic. Garbed in his official robes, he stood in the street with two Suna jounin behind him. They silently observed the exchange between the two teenagers.

"You're supposed to meet with Hokage-sama right?" she asked.

"Yes. We're late actually. We were supposed to arrive here in Konoha yesterday, but I was delayed."

"We should get going then." And with that they made their way towards the arena while they continued talking.

"So, where are your brother and sister? In Suna?"

"Actually, Temari is here. She had to speak with someone... the Nara man, I think. Kankuro is still in Suna though. He's in charge while I'm gone." Sakura started laughing out loud. "What's so funny?"

"Hehe. As much as they may say otherwise, I think Shikamaru and Temari-san have a thing for each other." Gaara simply blinked at her and went back to watching the ground under his moving feet, thinking about this new information.

Sakura glanced sideways at her silent companion as they walked. His face was set in a stern expression as his icy jade eyes watched the road in front of him. His vibrant red hair was just visible under the rim of his hat from her vantage point, and the fabric of his robes billowed around him as the two of them walked side by side.

Imposing. Deadly. He commanded the attention of anyone and everyone around him.

Kage.

Sakura couldn't help but be amazed at all he had accomplished.

When they reached the arena, there were a few people making their way inside even though the first match wasn't scheduled to start for another half hour. In the higher stands sat nobles and lords from Fire Country, Wind Country, Thunder Country and others. They talked to one another, probably making bets on various contestants. Someone called Gaara's name and they turned around to see Temari striding up to them from one of the smaller side roads.

"Hey Gaara. Hey there Sakura-chan! How're you doing?"

"Fine," she said, smiling at the older kunoichi.

"You're here to watch Naruto-kun no doubt."

"Yup. I don't think any of the other fighters will give him much of a challenge," she said with a grin, but stopped as soon as she realized what she'd said. "I mean... not that the team from Sand wont-" but Gaara suddenly cut her off.

"We know what you meant," he said, waving off the accidental comment. "The team from Sand that made it to the finals is talented, but Naruto is much more experienced. He's a force to be reckoned with. Besides... he's overdue to get the rank of chuunin. If the three from Suna can show they have the qualities of a chuunin, they will be given the rank even if they loose."

"Oh," she breathed, relieved that neither Temari nor Gaara had taken offence. "Will you be the one deciding if they become chuunin, Gaara?"

"All of us will," he said, motioning to his sister and the two jounin behind him, who were both standing several paces away, apparently a little intimidated by the two Sand siblings and the strange pink haired kunoichi of the Leaf who was on such casual terms with them.

"Ah, I see. Oh, you still have to meet with Tsunade-sama right?"

"Yes. We should go now Temari."

"Right," Sakura said. "I promised to meet with the others so we could find seats together." Gaara nodded and watched as she turned on her heal and left.

"See you later Gaara! Temari!" she called over her shoulder and waved. Gaara watched her go for a few seconds before heading toward another entrance to the arena; one that would lead them to the Kage's box. Temari watched him curiously as they walked side by side.

"You two are pretty good friends, huh?" He looked at her quizzically until she elaborated. "You call each other by just your first names."

"I do the same with Naruto," he said calmly.

"Yeah, and he's your friend, which means Sakura-chan is too?"

"Yes. She's... a good friend like Naruto. She's... good at understanding things."

"Ah."

Temari knew what he really meant. He meant that she understood _him_. Like the way Naruto understood him. Even if Sakura didn't know all the details of Gaara's past, she still took him at face value. And even though he had almost killed her only a few years ago, Sakura didn't fear him. In fact, she spoke to him as if he were just another normal person. And Temari knew what that must have meant to her brother. So she didn't say anything more as they walked up the stairs of the arena to meet the Hokage, while all sorts of ideas swam around in her head.

----

"Hey guys!" Sakura called as she ran up to a group of people standing by the main entrance to the arena.

"Hello, Sakura-chan," Hinata said quietly. Around her stood Kiba, Ino, Tenten, Neji, Lee, Shino, and Chouji, who now looked even more like his dad than ever with the typical armor and longer hair. Akamaru sat by Kiba's heel.

"Hey Forehead Girl," said Ino cheerily.

"Hey Ino-pig," Sakura responded.

Despite the fact that Ino and Sakura had finally managed to repaired their friendship, the pet names for each other had never quite gone away. It had been hard to become friends again years ago when Naruto had not been able to bring Sasuke back. A few days after Naruto had left for training with Jiraiya, they met accidentally at a tea shop and had had a long discussion, which resulted in a few tears, but considerably lighter hearts.

"Come on, Forehead Girl. Let's find some seats so we can watch that dunce of a teammate of yours," Ino joked.

"Don't call Naruto a dunce!" she berated before they walked into the arena to find seats. As they walked down the aisles, they paid no notice to two older females walking by.

"Dammit Suzie, we're not going bar hopping!"

"Aww, but I want a margarita..."

"It's the middle of the day! Hey... where'd Willow go?"

"Oh, there she is! Looks like she got distracted by some shiny object on the ground. I'll get her Rynn."

"If she doesn't stop doing that I'm gonna sick my Chipmunks of Doom on her."

The two strange females walked off to retrieve their friend, who was playing with a piece of shiny tin foil. Their conversation went unnoticed by the actual characters of this story, who had managed to find a row of empty seats that were, thankfully, chipmunk free. The tension in the spectators seated around the arena rose as everyone awaited the first match.

--

Gaara could easily spot Sakura from the Kage's box, her bright pink hair standing out like a beacon. But his gaze shifted to Tsunade as she stood from her seat and approached him, wearing the outer robe of the Hokage over her normal attire. They bowed to each other.

"My apologies Hokage-sama. I was delayed in getting here."

"Ah, that's quite all right," she said, waiving off his formality. "I'm glad you could make it at least. There promise to be at least a few interesting matches today." The two Kages sat in their respective seats. Ibiki and Shikamaru were there as judges of the Konoha genin.

"I'm looking forward to Naruto's matches," Gaara said. "I want to see how much he's improved."

"Ah. You and he are friends right? But I bet you'd like a rematch with him, ne? From what I heard, you and he fought each other during the invasion nearly three years ago."

"Yes. I would like to fight him again." An evil smirk slowly crossed Gaara's face. "But I'm afraid the resulting property damage would be rather extensive."

"That's Naruto for you!" she laughed. "The brat never quite knows when to give up."

The rest of the time before the first match was spent waiting. Gaara caught Temari and Shikamaru glancing at each other every once in a while out of the corner of his eye. He thought back on what Sakura had said about them. At this his eyes drifted back to the pink spot in the stands. Sakura was sitting with several fellow Leaf shinobi, smiling and laughing with the dark haired girl on her left. He recognized three of the shinobi from the mission to retrieve Sasuke. The other five she sat near he recognized from their first Chuunin Exam. But Gaara's attention was drawn away when the proctor, Genma, followed by the twelve participants, came into the arena. And the finals began.

The first match was the girl from the Hidden Cloud team against one of the Konoha genin. She liked bladed weapons apparently because the unfortunate boy eventually fainted from blood loss from all the cuts, thus making her the winner. The sight of blood made Gaara's fingers twitch momentarily before he violently squashed his old, near dormant urges. He had more control now. He was above that.

Gaara watched as all the opponents faced off one by one, keeping a close eye on the genin from Suna to observe their skills. They were fairly talented, he remarked to himself, and at least one of them would probably be promoted to chuunin. Naruto made quick work of most of his opponents, throwing them off with his raw power and some newly learned strategies.

And finally it came down to the last match: Naruto against the boy from Cloud with the blueish grey hair. Gaara shifted in his seat to get a clear view while dozens of people in the stands cheered. If he strained his ears he could pick out the voices of several of Naruto's friends, excitedly shouting their encouragement.

The boy from Cloud was glaring rather fiercely at Naruto while the golden haired boy just looked on determinedly. Genma brought his arm down with the shout to begin the match and the two contestants shot directly at one another, kunai flashing in the sunlight while the boys traded blows. Several Naruto clones appeared and attempted another combo attack only to be avoided and dispersed by a shower of shuriken and small lightning attacks. The Cloud nin grabbed the real Naruto and sent another huge surge of electricity into Naruto's shoulder. Naruto gritted his teeth through the pain and delivered a solid right hook to the other boy's face.

The two boys fought non stop until Naruto had been hit no less than three times with a surge of electricity; all three times on the same shoulder. His opponent however, fared far worse and finally collapsed from broken bones and exhaustion, unable to keep up with Naruto's freakish stamina. Gaara just smirked at his friend while the crowd erupted into wild cheers.

--

"Ow! That hurt!"

"Oh quit whining Naruto."

"But it stings..."

"I know," said Sakura. "But I'm not going to waste chakra healing such a minor injury. Besides, with your healing capabilities, this burn will be gone in hours."

Naruto sat on a hospital bed, his shirt and jacket lying beside him, while Sakura leaned over him to apply a clear liquid to a slight burn on his shoulder with a cotton ball.

"But hey, you won right?" she grinned.

"Damn straight I did. But that lightning attack still hurt."

"You said you fought the same kid from Cloud in the Forest of Death?"

"Yeah. I think he was mad cuz I beat him and we took the scroll from his team. He wanted to pay me back. That's why he hit me with that lightning thing so many times."

A knock sounded at the door. Sakura called for the person to come in and the door was pushed open.

"Yo Naruto!" Kiba shouted as he stepped in, followed by Shino and Hinata. The poor girl turned red when she saw Naruto was shirtless. _I wont faint. I wont faint... _she chanted in her head.

"Hey Hinata!" Naruto cheered. "Did you see me? I won the whole tournament!"

"Y-you were great N-Naruto-kun." She smiled and tried to be casual, stuffing her fists into her pockets. Another knock was heard and Neji, Tenten, and Lee came in.

"Ino and Chouji said congratulations on winning Naruto," said Neji. "They had to go meet Shikamaru."

"Yes! Go Naruto! You are in the springtime of youth! You'll be promoted to chuunin for sure!" Lee cheered. Naruto grinned and flexed his shoulder to test it. The pain was already fading and the burn was no doubt healing already.

"That lightning thing was pretty cool," said Kiba. "Did it hurt?"

"Only a little at first. But by the third time it hurt like hell!"

"Yeah, it looked like it would have. The fights didn't last very long though, did they?"

"Naruto was more advanced," Neji interrupted. "He's older and more experienced, and he's been training with one of the Legendary Three for years. The other genin were at a disadvantage."

"So when do we find out if he's a chuunin now?" Sakura asked while putting away the medical supplies she had been using. Hinata quietly drifted over to Naruto while the others were distracted talking to each other and offered him one of her jars of medicinal cream for his burn. He gladly took it and rubbed a bit into his shoulder. Yet another knock came from the door just as Naruto was pulling on his shirt. This time Sakura opened it.

"Temari-san, Gaara! What are you doing here?" she asked, smiling.

"We came to see Naruto-kun," said Temari. "Is he ok?"

"Like a little injury like this would stop me!" he shouted, hopping off the bed. "Come on guys, let's get out of here already. There are like, ten people in this room."

"Yeah," Sakura agreed. "Let's go find out if you made chuunin."

One by one they all filed out of the cramped hospital room until Hinata and Naruto were the last ones leaving. He stopped when he saw Hinata trembling slightly, rooted to the spot she had been standing on next to the hospital bed.

"Hey, hey. What's wrong Hinata-chan?" he asked quietly.

"It... it's nothing..."

"No, tell me."

"Uh... um... it's just that... the last time I saw G-Gaara-sama I..." she trailed off nervously.

"Hmm. Look, I don't know what you saw him do, but he's way better now. He's really cool once you get to know him," Naruto whispered with a reassuring smile. She stopped trembling and blushed a bit.

"Th-thank you Naruto-kun. Y-you're right." He just grinned and held the door open for her as they walked out into a white hallway where the others were already walking ahead of them.

"So," said Sakura, directing her question to Gaara and Temari. "Have you decided if any of the Sand genin will be promoted to chuunin?"

"Yup," Temari smiled. "Two of them will be. The other one wasn't advanced enough though."

"Ah."

"Naruto!" someone suddenly called from the end of the hallway behind them. They all turned to see Tsunade striding up to them with Shizune close behind.

"Hey old hag!" Naruto called cheerfully in way of greeting. A temper vein appeared on Tsunade's forehead.

"I said don't call me that brat." She had to suppress her anger and decided to ignore him, instead turning to her fellow Kage. "Gaara-san. I hope you have enjoyed the matches and your visit to Konoha. Have you made your selections for chuunin among the Sand genin?" He nodded. "Ah. Good then. So have I." Naruto was practically bouncing up and down by now and she scowled at him. "I'm sorry Naruto, but you did not make chuunin."

"WHAT?"

If Tsunade had waited to laugh any longer than she did, she would have been met with one very mad loud-mouth ninja. But she did laugh. And when she did, everyone just blinked at her for a second or two.

"Ha! Serves you right brat! I was just joking. You've more than earned the chuunin rank. I just wanted to get you back for that old hag comment," she smirked.

"Why you...! How could you do that! You nearly gave me a heart attack you old hag!" he raged. She glared at him and crossed her arms.

"Well anyway, I don't have time to deal with you right now Naruto. Oh, but I should tell you that both your temporary teammates made chuunin as well, but none of the other Konoha genin did." She sighed. "Well that's all. Come on Shizune. And Gaara-san," she said, nodding to the boy, "thank you for being here. I hope you have a safe journey home." He gave a slight bow and a nod of the head and she turned and walked away briskly.

"Ah. We're all chuunin now, Naruto!" Sakura cheered. "We should celebrate!" Naruto's scowl immediately disappeared and the grin was back full force.

"Yeah! We should go to Ichiraku!" he shouted gleefully. She sighed and smiled.

"All right. We'll get ramen since I guess you're the man of the hour."

"Yes! Come on guys. Let's go! Oh, wait," he said, turning around again with a big smile. "Hey Gaara, Temari, you guys wanna come too?" Naruto looked at them hopefully. Gaara blinked in slight surprise. He inwardly hesitated. Training with Naruto and Sakura was one thing, but he barely knew any of the other people besides Lee.

"I have to go speak with Aramaki about the new chuunin and..."

_Oh no you don't,_ Temari thought. _You're going to be social if it kills you._

"We'd love to!" she interjected. "I think I know where Ichiraku Ramen is, so once we're finished talking to the others, we'll come join you," she said smiling. Gaara glared at her but she just swung her arm over his shoulders congenially. He was as tall as she was now.

"All right! See you two later then! Come on guys..." Naruto said. He, Sakura, Gai's team, and Team Eight made their way out of the hospital in the direction of Naruto's favorite ramen stand, leaving only Temari and Gaara in the hallway.

"Temari. Why did you do that?" he asked dangerously. He was not pleased.

"Aw come on. It'll be fun. Naruto's so happy to be a chuunin."

More glaring.

"Sakura will be there to," she said slyly.

"So?"

"Don't you want to see her too?"

"I just did. She was standing right here." Temari couldn't tell from her brother's blank, but stern face if he was honestly confused, or if he was being defensive. Either way, she just smiled devilishly and walked away. Gaara frowned at her back and followed.

--

"Hey old man!"

"Ah, Naruto! If it isn't my best customer! What'll you have today?" The old man who had run Ichiraku Ramen for as long as Naruto could remember came walking out from the back of the stand wearing an apron and wiping a bowl with a towel.

"It's a party! I'm a chuunin now so we're celebratin'!" The old man smiled broadly and congratulated him. As a treat, he gave a slight discount since Naruto had brought so many people with him and ordered some dango from a nearby restaurant for the teenagers. The dango wouldn't be free of course. They would have to pay for it, but still, the old man couldn't help but be generous. Naruto _was_ his favorite customer after all.

About ten minutes later, Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji joined them as well and the old man brought out a few folding tables for the extra people. About five minutes after that, Temari and Gaara appeared.

Gaara spent nearly the whole evening talking to either Naruto or Sakura, and occasionally Lee. Naruto kept trying to get him to talk to all the others but it was all a social overload for him. Eventually Naruto gave up and left Gaara to his own devices while he tried to talk to Hinata instead, who was blushing profusely at all the attention the blonde boy was giving her. Temari enjoyed talking to all the girls and generally pestered Shikamaru. She seemed to like pestering him for some reason that the lazy genius didn't even want to attempt to fathom. However, Temari never failed to notice the way her brother practically stuck to Naruto and Sakura like glue and she smiled to herself.

When everyone started to drift off in the directions of their respective homes, Temari and Gaara bid their friends good bye and said they would be traveling back to Suna early the next morning. As they away from the others, Temari already had devious plans running through her brain.

--

One week after the conclusion of the Chuunin Exams, Sakura found herself running through the streets of Konoha, red in the face and looking anxiously through the crowds. The early January wind nipped at her face and chilled her fingers and toes despite the bright sunny weather. In her hand she clutched a slightly dirty envelope, tattered at the edges from being read repeatedly after Tsunade had handed it to her that morning.

_Dammit, where is he?_ She screamed in her head. She had been looking for Naruto all morning and afternoon, even going to his apartment, but it had been empty. She had been startled by just how small it was, having never actually seen it before.

Darting down a side street, she finally spotted the tell-tail head of golden blonde hair next to... She did a double-take.

_Is that... Hinata?_ And indeed it was. Naruto and Hinata were walking side by side holding ice-cream cones, the former sporting a huge smile and the latter blushing like crazy. _Are they... on a date?_

Inner Sakura started shouting triumphantly. _Yes! My plan worked even better than I thought! All I had to do was plant the idea in his head and he went and asked her out! Buahahaha! Dance my puppets! Dance! _Sakura shook her head to clear her inner persona's crazy thoughts and sprinted up to the pair of chuunin.

"Hey Naruto!"

"Hey Sakura-chan," he smiled, turning to see who had addressed him.

"Hello, Sakura-chan," Hinata said quietly.

"Eh Naruto, are you two on a date?" she asked slyly.

"Yup," he grinned. "We got ramen and ice-cream." Hinata's blush renewed itself and she stared at her nearly finished ice-cream cone. She could never have said no to Naruto's ice-cream idea even if it _was_ January. Sakura discreetly winked at Hinata and the girl blushed even more.

"Well, I'm sorry I interrupted you two, but this is sorta important. But... I guess it can wait if you two want to finish your date."

"Actually I was just walking Hinata-chan home."

"N-Naruto-kun, it's all right. If it's important then you should go. My home is very close anyway," she said shyly.

"Eh? You sure Hinata-chan? I can walk you the rest of the way," he said, scratching the back of his head embarrassedly, a slight tinge of pink on his cheeks. She only shook her head and smiled. Naruto knew she always liked to put others before herself.

"Well ok. I'll see you later then, Hinata-chan."

"Good bye," she said, smiling, and walked off in the direction of the Hyuuga compound.

"You see? I told you she was sweet."

"Yeah, you were right. And she doesn't hit me either, like you do." Sakura scowled at him. "Well you do! Anyway, what was it that you needed to talk to me about Sakura-chan?"

"Oh. I got this letter from Temari-san this morning."

"What is it about? Is something wrong in Suna?" he asked.

"No no. Nothing bad has happened but... Just read it and you'll see."

Sakura handed him the envelope and he carefully unfolded the letter.

_Dear Sakura-chan,_

_This letter is for Naruto-kun too so please make sure he reads it. I had to send this as soon as possible to make sure you got it before you had a mission or something. I know you guys must have a lot of stuff to do but I have an important request to ask of the two of you. You guys wouldn't know this, but Gaara's birthday is the nineteenth of this month. You know that stupid cliché "Sweet Sixteen"? Well every year up till now the nineteenth has been like a black hole on the calendar. Our mother died giving birth to Gaara so his birthday is also the anniversary of her death. He actually visited her grave last year for the first time. Anyway, my point is that Gaara's birthdays pretty much suck and his "Sweet Sixteen" is gonna be about as sweet as a dead dog if I don't do something. This is where you guys come in. I want you two to come to Suna as a surprise for him. I know it's kind of a lot to ask but you two are practically his best friends besides me and Kankuro. You don't even have to bring presents or anything, just be there. It would mean a lot to me._

_Sincerely,_

_Temari_

"Well," said Sakura, "what do you think?" Naruto stared hard at the letter for a few moments before answering.

"We're gonna go of course."

"You think Tsunade-sama will let us?"

"She better!" he shouted. "Cuz I'll be damned if I let Gaara spend his birthday visiting a grave!"

"Well then, we better go talk to her."

And so five minutes later, Naruto and Sakura found themselves winding their way through the streets of Konoha to the Hokage's tower to ask for passes to Suna. Naruto practically threw open the door of her office and stomped inside.

"Granny Tsunade!"

"Naruto..." she growled, looking up from several mission reports. "You shouldn't just barge in here. What do you want?"

He slammed his palms down of the wood of her desk and shouted, "We want passes to Sunagakure for a few days."

"What for?" she demanded, cocking an eyebrow. Sakura walked up to stand next to Naruto.

"Please Tsunade-sensei. Temari-san sent a letter asking us to come. It's... sort of a personal request." Tsunade looked at her curiously, leaning back in her chair with her fingers laced.

"What about your mission to find Uchiha Sasuke?" she asked carefully. Naruto's brow furrowed and he glared at the paper strewn desk.

"We _will_ find him. But... this is important too."

"I see... Well, it's not like you can do anything about that right now anyway. We've got no leads or information yet..."

"Wasn't Ero-sennin supposed to be looking for leads?"

"Yes. But Jiraiya hasn't sent me any word for a while now. But even so, you will still be on duty if you go to Suna. It wont be a vacation, just temporary leave. If I have to call you back for some reason you will be required to return immediately."

"We understand Tsunade-sama," Sakura said. Tsunade scratched her chin while thinking.

"Naruto, get your hands off my desk already," she snapped. He jumped and retracted his hands, waiting for her verdict.

"All right. I'll write up the papers for you. When is this anyway?"

"We need to be there by the nineteenth." Sakura said, relieved. Tsunade pulled two forms from one of her desk drawers and began scribbling on them.

"Here," she said, handing them the forms. "These say you are given permission by the Hokage to be in Suna for the time and date you said, and I gave you a few extra days after that. Put them with your travel papers and make sure to pass through one of the check points in Suna and have them stamped. You know the procedure Sakura."

"Right," she said, nodding to her teacher.

"Good. Now get out of my office," Tsunade grumped. They nodded and left hastily, heading out of the building. They never saw Tsunade's slight smile after they closed the door.

Sakura look at the sky as she and Naruto parted ways on the street, thinking about their impending trip. Temari would be so pleased.

They were going to Suna.

--------

And there you have it. Chapter Six. Sorry if the birthday idea seems a little silly but it's important setup for some stuff. But the next chapter WILL have a lot more humor in it, and also more Gaara/Sakura interaction. God the next chapter was fun to write.

Next time: Chapter Seven! Be afraid. Be very afraid!


	7. The Beginning of Things

BUAHAHAHA! Here is chapter seven! Wow I've got so many reviews! I love you guys! And a reviewer called "Toenail" correctly guessed that my cameo character in the last chapter was Willow! She was the one that was distracted by the shiny tin foil. Yay, you get a cookie! (hands you a cookie)

Well I have completed the drafts of chapter eight and nine, and am working on the draft of chapter ten (which is being a bitch and refusing to start properly). A reviewer asked if there was any way to make this a Sasuke/Sakura/Gaara triangle. Well, sorry but I can't do that. The plot line prevents it and... well if I told you why it would give away future plot information so I can't say much else about it. As I said, the main pairing is going to be Gaara/Sakura with minor Naruto/Hinata. There is also a very small amount of Temari/Shikamaru in the background which is pretty inconsequential.

An **IMPORTANT** note on the level of technology in the Naruto Universe: I read an interview somewhere with Kishimoto Masashi where he actually talked about it. Apparently, the Naruto universe's technology level is somewhere close to modern technology with one important difference: the weaponry is set in an earlier era so there are no guns or fire arms. Ninja in the Naruto universe don't need guns to be destructive so Kishimoto-sama didn't use them. As for the other stuff, they have TV's and video surveillance cameras (as seen in canon chapters 57 and 58 of the Forest of Death arc) and even trains and motor vehicles (as seen in the Naruto movie). We just don't see all of this technology on a regular basis, especially in the smaller villages and the ninja villages where there is a lot more traditional influence. I don't think they have advanced computers and stuff but you get the general idea. Or at least this is what I have observed. So the question remains... do ninjas play video games? Well, for now let's just say they do. (We see Naruto playing one in one of the recent ending theme songs of the anime.) XD And lets just say for now that they have T-shirts with funny sayings on them too.

This chapter will probably have the most humor out of all past and future chapters. Ok, so it's full of insanity. I hope I didn't make anybody out of character because of it. Well, if I did, please forgive me and they'll probably be back to normal in the next chapter. The rest of this fic will be more serious, trust me.

Well with that little note out of the way, let us move on! The rabid demon sand tanuki wills it!

--------

Chapter Seven

Temari would have been giddy if that were the kind of person she was. Instead, she just had the most devilishly pleased smirk you could imagine plastered all over her face. But at least she had a good reason: Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura were sitting at her kitchen table and her youngest brother was due back home any minute now. She had planned it perfectly so that they would arrive in Suna exactly on the nineteenth between the time that Gaara left the house, and the time he came back. It had been extremely difficult to get them into Suna without him knowing.

Temari had decided years ago that she would no longer visit her mother's grave on the actual day of her death. Neither did Kankuro. But for some reason, last year Gaara had visited his mother's grave for the first time on that very day. Temari had walked with him on the way there, but didn't enter the grave yard. She had watched from the gate, in the dead of night, as Gaara simply stood in front of his mother's headstone for half an hour, not moving, not making a sound. Then for some reason, he sat down on the ground, much like a lost child, for another half hour. Then they had walked home together in silence.

That had been the first and last time that Gaara would ever visit that grave.

Temari was determined to make this birthday better. Her little brother had never even had a birthday party before, and few people outside the family even knew when his birthday was. She supposed Gaara preferred it that way. This time though, she had made dinner and a cake with Sakura's help. (A lemon cake, since Gaara didn't really like sweets.) Naruto had told her that people sometimes had streamers and confetti and stuff at birthday parties, but the image of Gaara and multi-colored streamers in the same room made her laugh fit to burst.

"Temari, I think he's coming..." Kankuro suddenly said as he peeked out of the window above the kitchen sink. The house that the siblings shared was a small two story building tucked away in one of the quieter parts of the city. It had four small bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor, and a kitchen and living room on the first. Like all buildings in Suna, it was round and sand colored on the outside.

"Hey, hey. Aren't we gonna jump out and say surprise?" Naruto asked. "Shouldn't we hide or something?"

"Nah," Kankuro said. "He'll be able to sense us anyway. Plus, if we turn off the lights and jump out at him screaming he might dump a pile of sand on us."

"Can we at least still say surprise?"

"Sure, why not," Kankuro said, shrugging, and turned back to the door. "Here he comes..."

The door unlatched from the outside and swung open.

"SURPRISE!"

Gaara looked at the source of the voice like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming bus. "...Naruto? Sakura?"

"Happy birthday, Gaara," Sakura said with a smile on her face. Gaara turned to look at his sister.

"Temari, what's going on?" he asked sternly, hefting his gourd off his back and setting it on the floor. Kankuro slung an arm over his brother's shoulder.

"Isn't it obvious? They came all the way from Konoha to celebrate your birthday with you. You do remember that today is your birthday right?" Kankuro asked jokingly.

"Ne, Gaara, we came to make sure your birthday was happy for a change," Naruto grinned at him. Gaara just stood there, unmoving.

"Why should I celebrate my birthday?"

It was an honest, severe question. Naruto crossed his arms resolutely and stood in front of Gaara with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Well why should I celebrate mine? Huh? It's the anniversary of the day the Kyuubi attacked Konoha, but I still celebrate it anyway. So stop being so depressing all the time and just shut up and enjoy yourself for once."

Gaara blinked incredulously at him for a moment or two before his face softened again.

"Come on Gaara..." Sakura said. He sighed a pinched the bridge of his nose, then moved away from Kankuro to sit in one of the kitchen chairs.

"All right then," he relented.

"Yes!" Naruto cheered.

"So how do you celebrate your birthday Naruto?" Gaara asked, humoring his energetic blonde friend with a tiny smile at the corners of his mouth.

"With cake and presents!" he shouted, waving his fist in the air.

"First we should have an actual dinner," Sakura said, getting up from her chair.

"That's right," Temari grinned. "We made dinner."

"We?" Kankuro asked skeptically.

"Yup. Sakura-chan helped," Temari beamed.

Kankuro sighed in relief. Temari's cooking was not the best in the world. He and Gaara usually just made due with it, and occasionally cooked for themselves, but maybe Sakura's influence would spare them this time.

The food did turn out better than normal, and throughout the whole dinner Naruto and Kankuro traded random stories. Naruto recalled various incidents with his perverted sennin teacher and Kankuro actually had the gall to tell one or two embarrassing stories about Gaara when he had been about four. Gaara glared and retaliated by telling them about the time Kankuro had fallen asleep on the floor of his room holding Karasu to his chest like a teddy bear, which Temari had taken a picture of. Said picture was produced from somewhere in the house and Naruto laughed himself silly.

"Hey! I was seven!" Kankuro shouted indignantly. "How would you remember that anyway Gaara? You were only five!"

"I don't remember. I just saw the picture," he returned.

Naruto just laughed harder while pointing a finger at the mortified puppeteer. Then Kankuro turned to Sakura, hoping to get Naruto to focus on someone else. "Hey, I've been wanting to ask you..."

"Hm?"

"Is that... really your hair's natural color?" he asked with a quizzical face. She blinked and her face turned red. Inner Sakura screeched, _And what the hell is wrong with having pink hair?_ Naruto burst into fresh peels of laughter. Kankuro glared at him.

"You're one to laugh Naruto. Are those tattoos on your face, or did you loose a fight with a cat?"

"Yeah? And that stupid face paint makes you look like a clown!" Naruto shouted. "And you!" he shouted, pointing dramatically at Gaara. "What about you Raccoon Boy? Are those marks around your eyes really from insomnia, or do you just apply tons of eyeliner when no one's looking? Seriously, your whole family is weird!"

"Shut up Naruto!" Sakura cried, hitting him over the head.

By now Kankuro was practically dying from laughing so hard. Temari couldn't hold in her giggles anymore as she looked between her glaring brother and Naruto, with that huge lump on his head. Sakura remained angry for about two seconds before she cracked up and Naruto's glaring face soon broke and he started laughing too, while Gaara just looked at the rest of them like he either thought they were all mildly amusing, or just loony.

They continued eating cake, and Temari noted that Gaara's eyes flickered to the side every once in a while.

_Is he looking at... Sakura?_ Temari smiled to herself.

"Hey Kankuro, let's go get them now," Naruto said, quickly swallowing the cake in his mouth. Kankuro nodded an the two boys got up and went into the living room.

"Get what?" Gaara asked. Sakura smiled devilishly.

"You'll see."

Kankuro and Naruto came back with four boxes and set them on the table. One was rather long, another was about the size of a book, the third was small and square and wrapped in outlandish orange paper (guess who that was from) and the fourth wasn't a box at all, but a rather lumpy package wrapped in reddish paper.

"What is all this?"

"Duh," Kankuro interjected. "They're your birthday gifts from us."

Temari pulled the first two boxes toward him.

"These are from me and Kankuro."

Temari's gift was a set of ninja-to: short, straight-bladed ninja swords. They could be functional, but she figured they would be ceremonial instead, since Gaara used his sand. Kankuro's present was a video game for some strange reason. His only explanation was that he had to start teaching Gaara the ways of normal teenage boys, shinobi or not. Gaara glared angrily.

"Open mine next!" Naruto shouted, pushing the box forward. Gaara eyed it skeptically, then carefully pulled off the orange paper and stared at the box for a few seconds.

"Naruto..."

"Yeah?"

"What is it?" Gaara asked, inwardly bewildered.

"It's a Chia Pet," he said happily.

"I can read Naruto. But what _is_ it?"

"It's a... thing... pet. And you grow it."

"...It's a terra cotta head. Terra cotta doesn't grow."

"No, you put the seeds on it and grow the grass like hair. Then you can give it a mohawk or something."

"A mohawk..."

"Yeah," Naruto said with a cheesy smile. There was a long pause while Gaara stared at it.

"Thank you Naruto... I think I'll put it on my desk."

"Yeah. At first I thought about getting you a puppy. But then I thought... what if it didn't like you? Or it tried to bite or something, and the sand squished it? I'd never forgive myself."

Kankuro burst into hysterical laughter again, banging his fist on the table.

"What?" Naruto cried, as if his fear of Gaara killing an innocent puppy was perfectly valid. Maybe it was. Sakura sighed, shaking her head.

Her present was last. She shyly handed the lumpy package to him. She looked on nervously as he carefully stripped off the reddish paper. It had taken quite a lot of nerve to finally decide on the gift, and she desperately hoped she hadn't gone too far. _Please... Please don't be mad..._

The first thing that fell out of the paper was the the one thing that the practical part of her mind had demanded she include. It was a special medicinal ointment for sore muscles that she had developed herself. After all, even if he didn't get hurt, he still trained a lot and was bound to get sore and stiff just like any other ninja. But that was not the part of the gift that was making her nervous.

Gaara slowly took the rest of the paper off and pulled out a large black T-shirt and held it up in front of his face. The others couldn't see what was on the front. Gaara's brow furrowed and he frowned a bit. Temari finally got up from her chair to look over his shoulder. Her mouth dropped open a little.

_Crap, he's gonna kill me for this._ "Uh, Gaara..." Sakura began, "I... uh... I'm sorry if-" Sakura cut off when she heard him make a sound. It was low, soft, and came from somewhere in his throat. They all stared a bit when they realized what it was. He was _laughing_. Or rather, chuckling darkly. It would have been somewhat disturbing to anyone who didn't know him. Gaara held the bridge of his nose with one hand as the dark laughter continued.

"Well? What does it say?" Naruto asked impatiently. Temari took the shirt from her brother and turned it around for Naruto to read. There, in plain white letters, it read _The voices in my head think you have problems_. It was one of those T-shirts that civilians in Konoha wore all the time. Naruto had even seen this particular one once before. That didn't keep him from slowly breaking into more laughter. Temari and Kankuro looked between their brother and Naruto and they too started laughing, half relieved and half exasperated. Sakura smiled sheepishly when Gaara slowly stopped laughing and looked at her.

"Heh," she said nervously, "I saw it in a shop and..."

"Thanks," he said quietly.

"Hey guys," Naruto croaked, still shaking with laughter, "let's go play that video game."

The only game consul in the house belonged to Kankuro, and miraculously still worked regardless of how old it was, and was attached to the only television set in the house (also fairly old) which was in the living room. Gaara wasn't particularly thrilled about learning how to play video games, but for his brothers sake, and for the sake of some much needed normalcy, he relented. So for the next two hours Temari and Sakura watched from the couch in amusement as the boys sat on the floor and tried to teach Gaara how to play. He was a fast learner, but still considered the idea of killing virtual zombies a bit ridiculous.

By the time they had cleared the second level it was getting late and the girls were both yawning. Even Kankuro looked sleepy.

"Come on guys," Temari yawned, "let's go to sleep. I'm tired."

"Aww, but we only just got past level two," Naruto whined.

"That's enough for tonight Naruto," Gaara said as he turned off the game. "We can play some more tomorrow." Gaara didn't really want to play more tomorrow, so he just hoped that Naruto would forget. Naruto sighed and stretched his arms behind his head.

"Eh, I guess you're right. It is kinda late."

The second floor of the Sand Sibling's house was taken up by four small bedrooms and one large bathroom. Each of the siblings had their own room. The fourth was mostly empty as it was sometimes used for storage. Temari turned it into a make-shift guest room for Sakura by rolling out a comfortable futon. Naruto would sleep in Kankuro's room.

Sakura took a shower and put her backpack on the floor by the futon while drying her hair with a towel and then slipped on her pajamas. _Geez it's late. I'm so tired,_ she thought to herself as she looked at her little digital clock, ready to go to sleep soon. _But I've gotta get something to drink first..._ She walked out into the hall just as Temari came out of the bathroom with a towel over her wet hair.

"Hey Sakura-chan, aren't you gonna go to sleep?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, but I was just going to get some water to drink if that's ok."

"Sure, no problem. I think Kankuro and Naruto-kun are already asleep. Heh. I bet he snores just like Kankuro," she chuckled quietly to herself. "And Gaara's probably in his room meditating."

"Ah. Good night then," Sakura smiled.

"Good night," Temari yawned, disappearing into her room.

Sakura tip-toed down the stairs towards the kitchen. The house was so quite. The living room light was turned off but a faint glow came from the open door frame that led to the kitchen. Someone had turned the dimmer switch of the kitchen light very low.

"What are you still doing up, Sakura?" a low, quiet voice asked when she walked in.

"Gaara?" she whispered. "I didn't realize you were here. I was just going to get something to drink."

Gaara nodded in the semi-darkness. He was sitting at the kitchen table, leaning over an old fashioned earthenware cup.

"There's more tea if you want it," he said quietly. She got herself another cup and filled it with green tea from a pot on the stove and sat across from him at the table.

She squinted, her eyes finally adjusting to the dim light, and saw that he was actually wearing the shirt she gave him.

"You like the shirt?"

"Yes. I... no one's ever actually..." He paused for a while, taking in a deep breath and looking at her seriously. "I _do_ sometimes hear voices in my head you know, Sakura. _His_ voice. I even used to think I heard my mother's voice. But... I don't anymore."

"Yeah, um... I was afraid that it may have been going too far. I thought you might not like it."

He shook his head a bit. "No. It... makes me feel normal. Thank you for coming."

She smiled at him slightly as she drank more tea. "It was important. Naruto thought so too."

"But aren't you two supposed to be looking for the Uchiha?"

Her brow furrowed and she frowned into her teacup. "There's nothing was can do until we have more information. There's no way to know where to look," she said solemnly. She sighed and tilted her head back to look at the ceiling.

"Still, you didn't have to be here. Thank you."

"You're welcome," she breathed, eyelids drooping a little, face slack. It really was late. She stood up and put the empty cup in the sink and Gaara did the same. When she turned to walk out of the kitchen he suddenly caught her wrist in a gentle but firm grip.

"Sakura, wait."

Startled, she turned to him with wide eyes. She'd never actually actually seen him touch someone else voluntarily. His fingers felt hot against her slim wrist. He wasn't looking her in the eye and there was something in his voice she had never heard before. Sakura looked at him curiously, only a little nervous.

Gaara let his grip on her wrist slacken a bit and took a step closer to her, looking her in the eyes briefly before shifting his gaze. _What... what is he doing?_ There was no way to mistake what he was doing when he leaned in, tilting his head to the side a bit. Sakura gulped hard. She could have backed away, could have easily pulled her wrist out of his hand, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't come up with a reason to do so. So when he pressed his lips to hers, eyes still slightly open, she didn't flinch, didn't turn away. Instead she closed her eyes, and after a moment or two, pressed back. He kissed her a little harder. The fingers of his free hand flexed, but stayed at his side.

She felt something warm and wet touch her lips. His tongue. Her brain felt hazy and it barely registered when she opened her mouth as well. He tasted like green tea. It wasn't unpleasant.

Just as her foggy brain was contemplating putting a hand on his shoulder or in his blood red hair, a faint sneezing sound came from the stairs around the corner and by the time Temari walked into the kitchen Gaara had backed up several steps and Sakura was left breathing just a little deeper than before. Temari said something about getting something to drink, but Sakura barely paid attention and bid the two of them a hasty good night before quickly retreating up the stairs and into her room, shutting the door behind her.

Her mind ran in circles as she curled up in her futon, pulling the cover around herself like a protective cocoon.

_What **was **that?_ She thought desperately. _Why did he do that? Why did I do that?_

She touched her lips hesitantly, and suddenly her mind thought back on all the times she had fantasized about Sasuke as a child. She had always imagined her first kiss being with him, as being soft and sweet and romantic.

This...

Romantic?

Not really. It had been in the middle of Gaara's kitchen after all, rather than her favored childhood fantasy of a grove of Cherry Blossom trees.

Soft? Sweet?

No.

_Heated._ Hazy. In fact her body still felt warm and her brain was still fuzzy around the edges.

Sakura was suddenly utterly exhausted and as he eyes drifted shut the last thing she thought of in her semi-consciousness was red hair and a pair of dark-rimmed icy green eyes.

--

Sunrise was still almost two hours away when a persistent knocking came from the front door. Gaara had been brooding on the couch for the past several hours, thinking about how Sakura would probably never trust him again. She'd practically bolted after the kiss had ended.

_Who the hell is it at this hour?_ He thought angrily. He flung open the door, but immediately regained his composure when he saw that it was one of the rookie chuunin that worked at the Kazekage's tower. The poor chuunin, who was probably only two years younger than Gaara himself, was practically shaking. Only part of it was due to the fact that he was standing in front of the Kazekage's actual home, and that the door had nearly flown open, even if he hadn't quite believed them when they had said the Kazekage would be awake at this hour. He was so intent upon his mission that, in the darkness, he didn't even notice the strange slogan on Gaara's shirt. If he had he probably would have fainted.

"Kazekage-sama," he gasped in slight surprise.

"What is it?"

"Th-the sannin Jiraiya-sama has just arrived from Konoha. He says it's urgent. He says there are two Leaf-nin here that he has to speak to."

"I'll be there immediately. Return to the tower," he commanded. Gaara did not wait to see that the order was carried out before briskly turning back into the house, shutting the door behind him with a snap. In a second he was up the stairs, knocking on Temari's door.

"Temari," he called urgently. "Temari, wake up." A second later she opened the door, bleary eyed and groggy.

"Gaara? What's wrong?"

"Get dressed. Wake Sakura and tell her to do the same and to get ready to leave. Jiraiya is here and it's Konoha business." She blinked a few times and then disappeared back into her room. Gaara knocked on Kankuro's door next. When nothing happened he opened the door himself. Kankuro was sprawled on his bed, drooling slightly. Naruto was in a similar position on the floor among the tousled cover of a futon.

"Naruto, Kankuro, wake up," he commanded. Naruto blinked and sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"Eh? Gaara? What's going on?"

"Your teacher is here."

"Huh? Kakashi-sensei?"

"No. Your other teacher. The sannin."

"Eh? Ero-sennin's here?" he asked, his brain still sleepy. Kankuro yawned and sat up in his bed.

"Huh? What're you two doing?"

"The sannin Jiraiya is here. Naruto, pack your things. This is Konoha business and he probably wants you to leave."

Naruto's face turned serious and he immediately started to pull on his pants.

Five minutes later, and now no longer in their pajamas, all five shinobi hopped over the rooftops from the house to the central tower. When they got there, Jiraiya was already deep in conversation with four of the counsil members plus two guards. Naruto strode up to Jiraiya and impatiently tugged on his sleeve, face devoid of all his usual foolishness.

"What's goin' on old man?" he asked seriously. Jiraiya turned to him, taking in a big lung full of air before speaking.

"I've come across some information... and I believe I may have pinpointed the location of the Sound base."

Naruto and Sakura's eyes widened. "That means..." Naruto began. Jiraiya nodded.

"We may have found Uchiha Sasuke. I came here to get you two... and for another reason." He turned to address Gaara. "Kazekage-sama, our Hokage has humbly asked for some assistance in this mission. Most of our higher ranked ninja are currently on other assignments but this operation needs to be carried out as quickly as possible. She would only ask for one or two teams that you could spare."

Gaara glanced at Naruto and they held each other's gaze for a moment or two.

"Jiraiya-sama, you informed me of Orochimaru's plans for the Uchiha. Orochimaru is as much our enemy as he is yours, therefore it is also in my village's interest to make sure his plans do not succeed. So I will send ninja to assist you."

"Thank you," said Jiraiya with a slight bow. "It is much appreciated."

"This is, I assume, a retrieval mission and not a direct attack on Orochimaru. Correct?" Jiraiya nodded. "Very well. I will send an ANBU squad... and I will go as well."

"But Kazekage-sama!" one of the council members began to protest, but Gaara silenced him with a glare.

"My team was on the original mission to recover Uchiha Sasuke. I will be on this one as well." Naruto grinned at him. It was a silent thank you. Gaara turned to his siblings. "Temari, you are the diplomatic envoy to Konoha, so you will come with me. Kankuro, you know the drill. You're in charge while we're gone."

"Right."

"Jiraiya-sama, how soon does the Hokage need us?"

"As soon as you can manage it."

"I can gather the ANBU in an hour." Gaara glanced out a darkened window. "We will still have to move through the desert during the hottest part of the day..."

"That's ok. We can handle it," Naruto said with a determined grin. Gaara smirked slightly in return.

"Fine then. Naruto, Sakura, we leave in one hour."

Sakura was silently impressed. He really _was_ suited for his job. But he didn't really meet her eyes when he addressed the two of them. And she wasn't quite sure she could meet his eyes either. She still hadn't sorted out her thoughts about the previous night.

He'd kissed her.

She'd let him.

She couldn't be mad. It was a pretty good kiss too. But why had he done it? And why had she let him? She couldn't figure it out.

_He was probably just horny,_ she thought, half angry, half disappointed. _Damn him. Stupid teenage boy. _

But as Gaara left to gather the ANBU, he shot her a strange, almost guilty look over his shoulder, and somehow Sakura wasn't as convinced anymore.

The truth was that Gaara himself didn't really know why he had done it. He had simply _wanted_ to.

Now Gaara may not have had the best social skills in the world, but he was by no means ignorant. He had spent his whole life watching and observing people (and hating them for a good six years of it, but that was beside the point) and when your day is about eight hours longer than the average person's you have to find something to occupy your time, and reading had always been one of Gaara's favorite ways of doing just that. The library was like a huge chunk of knowledge that Gaara had slowly been consuming for years. Medical texts and scrolls were particularly interesting. So he knew what the human body was capable of, and he had seen hormones make people do stupid things (his brother was a prime example). But was this really an explanation? In any case, he would have to figure it out later. There were more pressing matters at hand.

The council members departed along with the guards and Temari soon left to gather the supplies that she and her brother would need, leaving Naruto and Sakura alone with the sannin. Jiraiya watched her go with a serious face.

"Naruto..."

"Yeah?"

"That Temari..." he said ominously.

"Yeah? What about her?"

Jiraiya suddenly broke into a wide, perverted grin. "Do you know if she's eighteen yet?"

"Ah! You stupid pervert!" he shouted angrily. Neither Naruto or Sakura were going to tell him that Temari was in fact almost nineteen.

For an hour Sakura and Naruto lay on two benches in the tower, drifting in and out of sleep, waiting for Gaara to return. When he did he was flanked by his sister and a four man squad of Suna ANBU, all prepared to move out.

--

Gaara had been right about the oppressive heat of midday in the desert, and they would have to endure it for another hour before they reached the edge of the grasslands and sparse forest that marked the beginning of River Country. But Naruto and Sakura paid little attention to the heat. An urgency of mind and body pressed down on them like a lead weight.

This was their chance. They'd finally found Sasuke and they were going to bring him back no matter what. They had to.

They just had to.

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Phew, there it is. Took a hell of a lot longer than it should have, but there you have it! The beginnings of romance and the beginning of the first major plot line! I'm sorry if some of the stuff in the birthday part was stupid. If so, don't worry. Like I said, this chapter will probably have the most humor of all the chapters and the story's gonna get more serious from here on out.

Anyway, Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays for whatever faith you are. This alone should be my Christmas present to you guys, but since you are so great, I have something more for you. :D

It's my very own fanart! Gaara and Sakura of course. But be WARNED. I marked it as "Mature Content" because it's very suggestive. You cant actually _see_ anything _important_ and they're not actually _doing_ anything, but they are mostly naked. (At least Sakura has some underwear on.)

So, if you mature readers out there would like to see it, you can find it on http // w w w deviantart (dot) com / view / 26682297 (best viewed zoomed out)

The next chapter's gonna be a whopper. Major shit's gonna hit the fan.


	8. Kabuto's Lament

Woooo! Hello again! Time for chapter eight! I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far, cuz I'm working really hard on it. One of my best friends, KageNoKatana is sometimes my unofficial beta and she helps with plot stuff, but other than that I do most of the editing work myself. Love ya KNK!

WOOO! I hit the 100 mark! I now have over 100 reviews! I love you guys. Thank you so much.

The draft of this chapter was written a while ago, but just recently chapters of Naruto came out that had Kabuto in them. I always liked Kabuto even if he was a spy and I never really thought that he was truly loyal to Orochimaru, but apparently he is. Well either way, I still like him, so this chap if for you Kabuto old buddy.

Oh! And this chapter is also in celebration of Gaara's birthday! The nineteenth of January. Happy birthday you incredibly smexy bishonen you!

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Chapter Eight

Four days. Four days they had been in Rice Field Country in the area Jiraiya had spoken of and none of the locals could tell them where the Sound base was.

Naruto was sulking angrily in a high tree branch. His broody image would have been rather imposing if he didn't have a fluffy blue fleece blanket wrapped around his shoulders. January in Rice Field Country was cold and snowy. A thin layer of the white stuff dusted the camp like powdered sugar, glistening in the early sunlight.

The ninja were spread out in the forest outside of a small village, to make their presence less noticeable, which was hard considering how many of them there were. First there was the ANBU squad from Suna, plus Gaara and Temari, then a Konoha ANBU squad and Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, Shikamaru, Jiraiya, and Team Eight (minus Kurenai, who had been on a mission with Asuma and Gai).

The mission was simple: find the Sound base, locate the target Uchiha Sasuke, and capture him without being caught and with as little trouble as possible. As difficult as capturing him might be, their biggest problem at the moment was finding the base to begin with. Jiraiya's initial information had come from the citizens of this particular small town, who had never really liked the Sound shinobi, but even if the townspeople were willing to give information about ninja they had never really considered to be part of their country, they still couldn't provide an exact location. Thus the Sand and Leaf shinobi were left with nothing but spare time while Jiraiya continued to investigate.

Naruto found himself spending most of his free time with Hinata. Their one date had gone very well, despite Hinata's infernal shyness and Sakura's interruption at the end. He found that she was wonderful to talk to once she stopped stuttering, or actually opened her mouth for that matter, which unfortunately wasn't very often. So Naruto took it upon himself to get her to be more forward. No one could tell if he was making any progress or just making it worse with all his attention.

Sakura had her own problems. She and Gaara had barely spoken a word to each other since they'd left Suna. It wasn't because either if them were mad, or didn't want to. It was just... awkward. Every once in a while Sakura would catch him looking at her out of the corner of her eye, but as soon as she did he would avert his gaze. To her chagrin, she found herself doing exactly the same thing. Temari and Naruto noticed this, but if they asked either of them about it, both would say it was nothing.

At the moment Gaara was also perched on a tree limb, mirroring Naruto on the opposite side of the clearing. He didn't seem to mind the cold as much though. He surveyed the surrounding hills from his vantage point with the early morning sun behind him.

Sakura couldn't stand it any longer. She had to talk to him, had to say something, _anything_, because the silence was killing her, and there was no way she was going to loose a friend over something as stupid as a kiss.

_It was anything but stupid_, Inner Sakura quipped, grinning as the memory of it resurfaced. Sakura shook her head to clear Inner Sakura's thoughts, fighting down a blush, and leapt fluidly onto the limb Gaara was sitting on. The bough quivered slightly at the impact, sending a shower of loose snow to the ground.

"Gaara..." she said, but was abruptly cut off when a distant thundering sound split the air and seconds later a tremor ran through the earth and up the tree, shaking the branch and throwing off her balance. She almost lost her footing, but in an instant there were hands at her waist and shoulder, preventing her from falling. Gaara's eyes locked with hers for a second before he shifted to look out at the hills. With Sakura's balance restored, Gaara removed his hand from her shoulder to point behind her.

"Look," he said darkly. She turned her head. In the distance a huge plume of smoke rose from the landscape.

"What is it?"

"Looks like an explosion," he said, then quickly removed his other hand when he realized it was still on her waist.

"Gaara!" shouted Temari's voice from the ground. "Was that an explosion?"

"Yes. There's a large cloud of smoke in the distance," he called back.

"Do you think that's the base?"

Gaara and Sakura leapt to the ground where all the other ninja had converged in the main clearing of the campsite.

"It probably is," he said. "It may also have something to do with Jiraiya. He still hasn't come back yet."

"Well then, we've gotta go, right?" said Naruto, clearly anxious. "What are we all standing around for?"

"All right. Let's move out," Gaara commanded. "Even if it isn't the base, Jiraiya will probably be there investigating anyway and we need to contact him."

"Right," Kakashi said leisurely, addressing the Leaf nins. "Everyone grab your weapons. There's no time to pack up camp."

With their orders given, the Konoha and Suna shinobi scrambled and the campsite was empty in a matter of seconds.

--

"Hinata-chan, can you see anything?" Naruto called as they raced through the forest. By now everyone could smell the smoke coming from up ahead. Hinata had her Byakugan activated as she searched for signs of battle.

"There are a whole bunch of chakra signatures moving everywhere," she said timidly. "It's hard to tell any of them apart."

"Shit," Naruto cursed. "What's going on?"

"All right," Kakashi said, finally beginning to sound serious. "This was supposed to be a fast, covert mission, but it looks like that just went out the window. We'll split up, but still try to stay hidden. Keep an eye out for the target but don't engage until we know what's going on. Shikamaru, you're with me. We're going to look for Jiraiya-sama."

That said, Kakashi and Shikamaru took off, Naruto and Sakura dashed in one direction, Team 8 in another. The ANBU teams split into pairs and Gaara and Temari headed off together.

--

There were Sound-nin everywhere, scurrying in all directions. They didn't seem to know what was going on either. Sakura and Naruto slipped from tree branch to tree branch to avoid leaving foot prints in the snow, but with all the seemingly clueless otonin running around on the ground and leaving foot prints of their own, it probably wouldn't matter soon.

"Naruto, look!" Sakura hissed, grabbing his shoulder to bring him to a stop. There, lying in the open, were the bodies of two dead Sound-nin, their blood staining the snow.

"Dammit," Naruto whispered. "What the hell is going on? Nobody in our group came this way, so who's attacking?"

"Naruto," Sakura whispered hesitantly. "Doesn't it seem now that these Sound guys might be _fleeing_ something?"

"Yeah, but what would they be running from? Maybe Jiraiya?"

"But he wouldn't attack without us, or unless he was forced to, so..."

Just then a shout interrupted them.

"That was Hinata-chan!" Naruto shouted, immediately taking off in the direction of her voice with Sakura frantically following him. They burst into a clearing to find Hinata, Kiba, and Shino fighting several Sound-nins.

"Tsuuga!" Kiba roared as he and Akamaru slammed into a heavy-set otonin with an ax in his hand. Two of the other Sound ninja were screaming and struggling as swarms of Shino's Kikai insects slowly engulfed their bodies. Another Sound-nin with a long ponytail of dark hair was going hand to hand with Hinata. She seemed to have the advantage with her Jyuuken even if it didn't look like it from the outside. Her opponent was slowing down and a trickle of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth. Despite this he smirked when another Sound-nin came up behind her with a kunai raised in his hand, but the smirk disappeared when Hinata swiftly turned and delivered a brutal flat-palmed blow directly to the right side of the man's chest. He fell on his back and didn't get up. In an instant she turned to her previous enemy and struck his neck with two fingers. He crumpled to the ground, seemingly unconscious. The other three shinobi who had been fighting Shino and Kiba were not so lucky, and their broken bodies now lay motionless on the ground.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto called. "Are you guys all ok?"

"Yeah, we're fine," Kiba said as he nudged the body of the huge burly otonin with his foot. Akamaru sat near his master with his tongue lolling out of his mouth.

"These otonin were apparently running somewhere when they found us. Perhaps they thought we were responsible for the explosion, and so attempted to kill us," Shino said cooly. "We should leave soon before more come."

Hinata was only half listening as she hovered over the body of the shinobi that had foolishly attempted to sneak up on her. Her Byakugan was no longer active and her hands were nervously clasped in front of her.

"I... I didn't k-kill him, did I?" she asked in a hushed whisper. Naruto put a comforting arm around her shoulder and peered into her face. She was too distracted to blush. Sakura knelt next to the body on the ground.

"Hmm... That was some strike Hinata-chan. His right lung is collapsed." Hinata squeaked and clamped her hand over her mouth. Sakura stood and checked the other shinobi Hinata had fought. "This one will live. But the other wont unless the Sound's medics find him within the next few minutes." Hinata looked at her curiously but the pink-haired kunoichi just shook her head. "I'm not going to treat them. I'm a medic, but they're the enemy and we have a mission to complete. The best I can do is give this one a quicker death."

"I'll do it," said Kiba, stepping forward with a kunai in hand.

"No!" Hinata suddenly shouted. "I-I'll do it. I'm sorry Sakura-chan, you're right. I cannot feel sympathy for the e-enemy." She took a shaky breath and bent down next to the otonin who managed one quiet, ragged breath before she reactivated her Byakugan and placed two fingers on his chest. The man stilled completely.

"Right then, let's go. We'll leave the other one for his comrades to find," said Sakura.

They all nodded in agreement. Sakura took one last look at the sound nin and then followed Hinata and Naruto as they continued into the forest.

She had lied. Hinata had actually killed the other sound nin without even knowing, but Sakura knew that Hinata had to overcome her gentle nature when it came to the enemy. It was better that Hinata had consciously decided to end the life of one rather than someone else do it for her, and she would have been too distraught to do so had Sakura told her the truth about the other one.

Naruto looked back at Sakura with a knowing, solemn expression on his face as they ran. She returned it because she knew he had noticed the truth as well. Naruto turned his head again and squeezed Hinata's hand.

--

_Damn this is troublesome_, Shikamaru thought. He and Kakashi had been looking for Jiraiya among the scrambling otonin when they had been spotted. Now they were surrounded by more than twelve, and it looked like more would be appearing soon.

Kakashi was little more than a blur as he wove left and right through the sound nins, taking out as many as he could while Shikamaru had managed to kill two with his Shadow Sowing technique. Shikamaru cursed again. He was doing his best to hold some of them still with his Kagemane no Jutsu while trying to strangle two others with his shadow at the same time. _Shit... I've been using up too much chakra... I can't hold them much longer..._

"Haaaaaa!"

Several orange blurs burst through the trees and three Sound-nin were knocked away like bowling pins. Another pink blur flitted into view as Sakura slammed her fist into one of the shinobi held prisoner by Shikamaru, followed by her boot in the stomach of another. Sakura then raced off to deal with more Sound-nin that had just shown up as Naruto skidded to a halt by Shikamaru, who finished strangling the last otonin in his grip while Naruto defended his back.

"Hey Shikamaru! Have you or Kakashi-sensei seen Ero-sennin yet?" Naruto called over his shoulder as he created another clone to deal with an on-coming attack.

"No. We were spotted by these guys a few minutes ago and we haven't been able to get rid of them. They're everywhere. Where're the others? Have they found the target yet?"

Naruto had to launch a few kunai with exploding tags before he could answer. "Not yet. But me and Sakura-chan came across Kiba and his group a while back. They got caught too but they're ok now and they headed west I think. You should have seen Hinata-chan, Shikamaru! She was awesome!" he cheered with a big grin on his face. Shikamaru smirked.

"Tch. You're lucky. Hinata's nice and quiet, not bossy or troublesome like one woman I know."

"Huh?" Naruto asked, perplexed. "Who are you talking about?"

"Tch. Nobody," he sighed and grabbed three more Sound-nin with his shadow. Naruto created two more clones and leapt away from Shikamaru to tangle with one particular Sound-nin with a sword on his back. After a few minutes of clashing his kunai against the otonin's sword, Naruto finally got the upper hand and slammed a Rasengan into his stomach.

Naruto paused for a second to survey his surroundings. Around him the otonin were slowly dropping in number. Shikamaru was choking the life out of two, Kakashi continued to dart between enemies while reading their movements with the Sharingan and throwing their own techniques back at them, and Sakura was facing off against a scrawny Sound-nin with a love of poisoned needles.

_Well, this is really bothersome_, Sakura sighed to herself as she dodged more needles. _I can't get close enough to land a good punch without risking a hit from one of those damned needles!_ The otonin came at her again, this time with a poisoned dagger. _Big mistake, forgetting your long range weapons._ She smirked. They hurtled at each other and Sakura charged her fist with chakra in preparation to take him down... but she never got the chance. The unfortunate Sound-nin was swept up in a wave of sand, never to see light again.

_Wait... sand?_

Sakura whipped her head around to either side, looking over all the Naruto clones, over Kakashi's blurred figure, over the unlucky Sound-nin who was dying at the mercy of his own shadow, to the outstretched bough of a huge pine tree. Temari whizzed past her to cut down the enemy with blades of wind but Sakura never noticed as her eyes tunneled on the tree limb where Gaara was perched with arms outstretched to direct the sand, his face contorted in a demented sort of euphoria as he crushed several Sound-nin at once.

Gaara and Temari has obviously run into enemies earlier as he was flecked with blood that was surely not his own. He radiated power, death, bloodlust, and at the same time unflinching authority and sureness. A shiver ran down Sakura's spine as he slowly turned his head in her direction.

_No..._ she thought desperately. She couldn't look into his eyes, not when he was like this, when he was full of terrifying glee and mania. But she couldn't help it. He locked eyes with her ...and it was gone. The demonic aura vanished as soon as their eyes met and all that was left was iron will and the urge to protect. She mentally berated herself for her brief panic and smiled at him. He smirked a bit in return.

In less than a minute the last few otonin that had appeared a few minutes ago were dead. Naruto roughly kicked one of the crushed bodies as he gingerly rubbed a lump on the back of his head.

"They were just a bunch of chuunin and genin luckily," Kakashi said as he wiped a cut on his arm with his thumb. Shikamaru leaned over a body with his hands on his knees, panting and gasping for air until he regained his breath. While Sakura gave him a soldier pill and a long drink of water from her canteen, the Sand siblings left again, this time, oddly enough, in different directions rather than with each other. Kakashi and Shikamaru once again headed off in search of Jiraiya while Naruto and Sakura went their own way.

--

They were downwind of the smoke now and it burned their eyes. Naruto and Sakura soon passed the burning wreckage of a building. Through the smoke, sparks, and ash they saw that it was nearly identical to the entrance to Orochimaru's previous base, the one Naruto, Sakura, and Jiraiya had come across years ago while helping the orange-haired girl from the Fuuma clan. There would be no one inside now that everything was in flames.

Soon the smoldering building and its infernal smoke were behind them and they could breath again. Through the trees and bush ahead of them they could see a field, a huge open expanse gently sloping into a hilltop. They skidded to a halt at the edge of the trees when they glimpsed the figure standing in the open.

"Sasuke..." Naruto hissed.

Sakura gaped. Was... _was_ that Sasuke? The hair and skin were the wrong color but... she knew. She knew it was him because she'd seen that aura before, different from Naruto in a fit of rage and fury, different from Gaara when he was taken over by the demon's bloodlust. It was evil, insideous...

_...like Orochimaru._

Sasuke was several yards away from them with his back partly facing their direction, dressed all in black with unusually long blueish hair and discolored skin. The muddy snow around him was splattered with blood that had come from the limp body he was hoisting halfway off the ground... a body with glasses and grey hair pulled back in a pony tail.

"That's... that's _Kabuto_," Naruto whispered hoarsely. Suddenly he clenched his fists and dashed out from the cover of the trees and into the clearing. Sakura made an attempt to clutch at his shirt to hold him back, but in vain, and simply froze in her spot and watched with detached horror.

"SASUKE!" Naruto shouted angrily as he came to a stop a few yards away. Sasuke stood still for a moment before letting Kabuto's body drop to the ground with a sickening thud. He turned, and now that he was finally facing their direction, Sakura saw the horrible gold and black eyes for the first time.

"Naruto..." he drawled with a small condescending smile. Something about it made Sakura shudder. "Long time no see."

Naruto's eyes darted between Sasuke and the broken, bloody body on the ground. Maybe... just maybe he could foster that tiny hope at the back of his brain.

"Sasuke... were you the one that caused that explosion?" he asked, half fearing and half anticipating the answer.

"Yes."

Sakura couldn't take being on the sidelines any longer and she stepped out of the trees. "Sasuke," she said shakily. He tilted his head in her direction.

"Well isn't this a nice little reunion?" he said mockingly.

"Sasuke," Naruto said sternly, "we came to bring you back to Konoha."

"Of course you did," he sneered.

"Dammit Sasuke! You left Konoha for this place to get stronger and now you just attacked it! Are you coming back to Konoha or not?"

Sakura could only watch mutely. She had never been face to face with the form he was in now. Tsunade and Naruto had warned her about the second level of the curse seal, about what it could do and what it looked like, but the warning paled in comparison to the real thing. Sasuke's face was sharp and mean, nothing like the way he had been when they were kids.

Sasuke began to laugh, low and mocking. Naruto growled and grit his teeth.

"Konoha?" he scoffed. "No, Naruto. I already told you, I'm not going back to Konoha. I can't get stronger there."

"Then why did you attack this place?"

"Attack? No, I was simply presented with the perfect opportunity to escape."

"Wh- what?"

"You said it yourself Naruto, Orochimaru doesn't give power away for free." Sasuke held up his flexed bloody fingers. "I've learned a great deal here, but if I had stayed much longer he would have simply taken my body as his new vessel. I still have to get my revenge, Naruto. I still have to kill Itachi."

"Arg... What are you talking about? Orochimaru would just capture you if you tried to escape!"

Sasuke just smiled and said, "I told you. You provided the prefect opportunity for me to escape, the perfect distraction for Orochimaru." At this, Sasuke turned his head to look over his shoulder at the far off hills, and if they listened carefully, they could hear distant booms and crashes."Who better to occupy Orochimaru while I get away... than another Sannin?"

Sakura's eyes widened as everything became clear. "Jiraiya-sama," she breathed. "Orochimaru and Jiraiya-sama are fighting right now. Somehow they got into a confrontation. With him distracted, you could get past the other Sound nin and escape... Even Kabuto..." she trailed off, looking at the body near Sasuke's feet. Sasuke also looked down at it with a little disgust.

"He never did trust me really. Not that he should have..."

Naruto could take no more. He charged at Sasuke, eyes suddenly red and slitted.

"BASTARD!" he roared.

They met in a flurry of fists, arms and legs all moving lightning fast. Sasuke avoided Naruto's blows with deft ease, but the enraged boy kept coming, an intense, powerful fury behind each fist. Sakura stood rooted to the spot as she watched the two boys trade blow after blow. Reddish chakra started to boil up from Naruto's body and form an almost solid shape around him. Sasuke's dark chakra swirled around him as he aimed a Chidori at Naruto's head. Naruto sprung sideways and half blocked it but was thrown back into a thick tree trunk at the force of the blow, temporarily winded.

Sakura unfroze. _No! I wont be left behind again. This time I'm gonna help you bring him back Naruto!_

She darted forward, whipping out four kunai, and flung them at Sasuke, carefully calculating where they would hit. Sasuke's head jerked to the side. He sneered at the oncoming attack and blocked all four as he charged right at her, bluish chakra crackling to life in his outstretched hand.

_No! I've gotta dodge! _

Her feet shifted, but too slow. He was too close... too fast... Naruto's shouts were drowned out in the roar of a thousand birds.

And then it stopped. Sasuke stood struggling on the other side of a barrier of sand, his fist caught and buried past the wrist. Gaara was at her side, arms crossed and radiating nearly as much anger as Naruto.

"Touch her," he growled, "and I'll make sure your death is slow and painful."

Sasuke laughed and pulled his hand free of the sand barrier and stood defiantly in front of Gaara.

"Sabaku no Gaara. It's been a long time. I heard you became Kazekage. They must have such low standards in Sunagakure now," he sneered. Then he turned his cruel gaze on Sakura. "What's the matter, Sakura?" he mocked. "Aren't you going to beg me to come back with you? What happened to that declaration of love you made?" Her aghast expression turned to one of anger but he just kept talking. "You certainly keep interesting company these days, eh Sakura? Do you have a thing for _demons_?"

Sakura snarled and Naruto almost couldn't believe he had heard her make such a sound. He watched, astonished, as she did something he had never seen her do before: she struck out in pure anger at Uchiha Sasuke, the boy she'd chased and pined after for years as a child. Sasuke's gut told him that there was something odd about the fist that was flying at him, something he needed to avoid _now_.

"AAAHHHHH!" she screamed as she lunged at him. Sasuke dodged and her fist hit the ground. In a split second the snowy ground upheaved and the earth was split into chunks of soil and rock. "DON'T YOU _DARE_ INSULT THEM!" she screamed.

Sasuke looked on in slight astonishment at what a single punch had done. Naruto was on him again in a second with another Rasengan. Sasuke dodged and Naruto continued to charge him. Gaara urged his sand forward, preparing to attack the Uchiha.

"No!" Naruto suddenly shouted, seeing the sand in his peripheral vision. "He's mine!"

Gaara stopped. Ordinarily he wouldn't have done so, but this time he understood. This was personal. Naruto had something to prove, and even if Gaara disliked being on the sidelines, he would hold back for his friend's sake. Sakura was about to head into the fray again when Gaara caught her arm. She looked back at him and he shook his head.

"We'll let Naruto fight him for now," he said quietly. "He'll wear him down and then we can help Naruto capture him." Reluctantly, she calmed her tense body and Gaara let go. They stood side by side and watched as Naruto and Sasuke tore up the landscape. Sasuke raced around the small hilltop with Naruto constantly on his heels.

_What's he doing...?_

"Gaara!" she cried suddenly, "he's...!"

"Damn! I see it too. Naruto! Get out of the way!" he called, but the warning came too late. The five seals that Sasuke had secretly been laying while he ran were activated by a hand sign and Naruto was caught in the five point trap. The explosion let off a deafening boom and half the field was engulfed in the inferno. Gaara threw Sakura to the ground, protecting them both with a shield of hard-packed sand. The explosion outside settled and the sand moved away. Their ears rang as hearing returned.

Sakura frantically searched the devastated landscape, horrified. The trees and grass were blackened and burned, and Naruto and Sasuke were nowhere to be seen.

"Naruto!" she called. "NARUTO!" There was a groan from somewhere and Naruto stepped out from behind a charred tree trunk, his clothes and hair singed, a trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth. His eyes were clear blue again.

"Where..." he coughed, "where'd that bastard go?" Three pairs of eyes searched in all directions. Nothing. Sasuke was gone.

"Dammit!" Naruto cursed vehemently as his fists clenched and he stomped angrily. "DAMMIT! He got away!"

"I'm sorry Naruto," Sakura whispered. "I should have seen that trap sooner." He didn't say anything for a while, afraid that he would say something cruel with his rage boiling so near the surface.

"No Sakura... it's not your fault. That... that bastard..."

Voices erupted from the other side if the trees. Kakashi, Temari, Shikamaru, Hinata, Kiba, and Shino ran up to them, all covered in mud and minor bruises and cuts.

"Gaara..." Temari started, but she flinched when he turned his icy gaze towards her. He and Naruto both emitted angry, swirling chakra.

"Naruto, Sakura," said Kakashi. "What happened?" They were both quiet for a moment before Sakura spoke.

"It was Sasuke... he escaped. We don't even know which direction he went."

"Ah." Kakashi said, looking pensive for a moment. "Then the mission is a failure," he sighed. "It's unfortunate, but Orochimaru escaped as well. Jiraiya-sama is close by. He fought him, but he is uninjured.

Naruto grit his teeth and clenched his fist so hard a little blood leaked out from where his fingernails sunk into the flesh. "Dammit! That snake-bastard got away!"

"N-Naruto-kun..." Hinata whispered worriedly. Akamaru, who had, until then, been sitting near Hinata's feet, began to sniff at the ground, wandering over to the side of the field that the explosion hadn't reached. He started growling and Kiba looked up.

"Eh? What is it Akamaru?" The huge puppy barked and pointed his nose at the body lying in the muddy grass. "Guys, who is that?"

"It's Kabuto," whispered Sakura. "Sasuke killed him."

"I wouldn't be so sure..." he said, scowling. She gave him a quizzical look and they watched him walk over to the body. They all crowded around it.

Sasuke had certainly done a number on Kabuto. The grass underneath him was muddy from melted snow and soaked in blood. More blood and dirt caked his ruined body and clothes. Rivulets of dried blood ran from his mouth, nose, and from under his hair. There were huge gashes in his abdomen, his legs and arms were all broken, and Sakura could see glimpses of internal organs and bones through the huge wounds.

"I... I don't believe it," she gaped as she examined him closely. "He's actually _alive_."

Kabuto's mouth twisted into a painful smile and his eyes opened slightly. His lungs must have been punctured with broken ribs as well because he coughed and fresh blood ran from the corners of his mouth when he spoke.

"Don't worry Sakura-chan... I'll be dead soon enough," he said. He coughed again, spraying more blood. "Sasuke-kun made sure of that." Kabuto paused again, taking in shallow raspy breaths. "It seems as if he has gotten away. Orochimaru-sama will be rather unhappy."

Naruto growled and gripped Kabuto's shredded shirt, roughly yanking his torso a few inches off the ground.

"You..." he seethed. "You... and that snake son of a bitch... it's all your fault that Sasuke left! It's your fault he's like this!"

Blood gurgled in Kabuto's throat and a laugh escaped, a strange sound coming from a dying man. "He _has_ become rather _twisted_ hasn't he? But not all of it is directly Orochimaru's fault."

"What the hell are you talking about!"

Kabuto had to struggle and gasp for more air before answering, "It's... the seal. The power comes at a price."

Naruto gripped his shirt tighter. "What price?"

"His _mind_. He's slowly loosing himself. After enough time... he wont really be himself anymore." He coughed again, spiting still more blood. "And his body too. The seal causes so much strain... The more he uses it the more it will destroy him, slowly, on the cellular level. But it's not that bad for him yet..."

Naruto looked morosely at Kabuto for a while. Everyone else was also silent. Naruto slowly lowered Kabuto back to rest on the ground. His breathing became even more wizened and labored. The Konoha and Suna shinobi all stood and watched, the only witnesses to his end.

"I'm sorry Naruto-kun," he gasped. "If we weren't enemies, I'd like to think we could have been friends." His eyes shifted and peered through shattered glasses. "And Sakura-chan too..." His voice was so quiet now. "Good bye... Sakura." His eyes drifted closed and the nearly unnoticeable rise and fall of his chest ceased completely.

"Good bye, Kabuto-sempai," she whispered.

Whether or not he heard her before he died, Sakura never knew.

--

Naruto disappeared into the trees. The sound of flesh and chakra hitting bark and dirt disturbed the still air as he worked out his frustration. Shikamaru sighed and stuck his hands in his pockets while Hinata looked worriedly in the direction Naruto's angry voice was coming from.

Sakura was in a haze, only vaguely aware of what was going on around her. At some point the ANBU and Jiraiya showed up with one or two unconscious captive Sound-nin. No one one was in immediate need of her medical aid so she was content to simply let everyone talk over her head while she just stared at Kabuto's body. Kakashi and Jiraiya were speaking now. There was something about only chuunin and genin, something about the Sound compound being nothing more than an outpost base.

Fabulous.

But when the question of what to do with the body came up, she couldn't stand there any longer. Even if she tried, she couldn't bring herself to _hate_ Kabuto, even if he was a traitor. Sure she didn't like him, but she didn't hate him either. She didn't want to know what they were going to do with his body.

There was too much in her head, too much going on, too much to think about, and she had to be _away_, somewhere, anywhere else. Only stopping to whisper something to Kakashi, she left as inconspicuously as possible.

Only one other person saw her go.

--

_Damn him_, she cursed to herself. _Damn him._

Sakura stood on the edge of a gully in a large gap between trees with the sun hanging low on the horizon in front of her. Tears slowly leaked from her eyes and her fists clenched in anger. _He's gone... God damn you Sasuke. Why did you end up like this..._

Someone was behind her. She couldn't tell exactly who, but they weren't hiding. Well... even if they weren't the enemy she still didn't feel like talking to anyone right now.

--

Gaara had been standing behind her for about a minute before she seemed to notice him, but she didn't turn around. From her posture and slightly quivering shoulders he could tell she was crying even if he couldn't see her face. She seemed to be angry too. He could guess why.

But the crying... it bothered him. She was his friend. He had to do something. But what?

_What would Naruto do?_

Gaara knew what Naruto would do, but he himself had never done it before. He approached her, but even when he was right behind her she didn't turn around. Well if she wanted to be stubborn...

Sakura internaly panicked for a split second when two arms encircled her from behind, wrapping around her shoulders. She hadn't realized the person had gotten that close. She turned her head to the side just as the person leaned against her back and put their chin on her shoulder.

"G-Gaara?" she whispered, astonished. He looked at her sideways.

"I'm sorry," he said blankly.

She was being swallowed, surrounded, by the heat at her back.

"F- for what?"

"That's usually what people say when they want you to feel better."

Her eyes widened a little in disbelief and her chest tightened.

"You..."

"I don't like it when you cry."

She sniffed a little and brought up her hand to wipe away a tear. One of Gaara's thumbs brushed over her other eye.

Of all the people to comfort her... she had expected Naruto or maybe Kakashi, but it was _Gaara_, the one so many thought was emotionless and uncaring. But right now he wasn't the cold, calculating Kazekage he had to be on missions. He was just... Gaara, her friend, and he was trying to comfort her. Even if he didn't really know how, or wasn't as overt about it as someone like Naruto would have been, he cared enough to try.

"He's gone..." she croaked. "He's dead."

"Kabuto?" he asked quietly while still holding her, slightly puzzled. She shook her head and sniffed.

"No. _Sasuke_. He may be alive but... the Sasuke we knew is gone. I was so stupid to think that we could convince him to come back." She was sobbing again now. Gaara gripped her tighter.

"Not stupid. Foolish maybe, but there's nothing wrong with wanting your teammate back, to want that... feeling," he said. His face went blank for a moment and his eyes grew distant and unfocused.

_He understands... but it's hurting him._ She brought her hands up again, gently touching the arms that were wrapped around her.

"Damn him," she cursed. "I wasn't even strong enough to..." She clenched her eyes shut and her fingers grasped his arm tighter. "I couldn't do _anything_."

Gaara suddenly gripped her harshly, wrapping one arm around her waist. "Don't..." he growled, "...don't you _dare_ belittle yourself because of that bastard." She opened her eyes and looked at him sideways. "You're too strong for that," he whispered in her ear.

Somehow the harsh admonition was better consolation than something sweet and pitying that might have come from someone like Hinata or Ino. She smiled slightly... and realized just how _close_ he was. His whole body was pressed against her from behind, one arm encircling her waist, the other around her shoulders. His face was right next to hers, nose touching her cheek, and his breath warmed her skin in the frosty air.

Something in the atmosphere changed. Maybe Gaara had finally noticed their proximity, or maybe Sakura had fidgeted in a certain way, but it was now apparent that his chest was rising and falling against her back more rapidly than before. She gulped, his breath ghosted across her cheek, and her lips fell open a bit when he nuzzled the junction of her jaw and her neck. Gaara's fingers played at the curve of her waist and at her collar bone. Now both of them were breathing heavily and their body heat mingled and hung in the air around them.

But just when Sakura began to turn her face towards his, he became still. Slowly he unwrapped his arms and stepped back a bit as he half turned his face to peer behind them. Sakura's arms fell to her sides and she turned to look as well. She felt cold.

"He's coming," Gaara said quietly. She didn't have to wait long to find out who. Naruto plodded slowly towards them out of the trees, face set stern and solemn, not at all his usual self. The knuckles on both his hands were bruised and dripping blood.

"Sakura-chan..." His voice was dull and listless.

"Yeah Naruto?" Hers wasn't much better.

"It's... time to go."

She nodded and began to follow Naruto back in the direction of the others, then stopped just as she neared the edge of the trees, looking bak at Gaara. She didn't quite know what had just happened between the two of them, but that didn't matter for the moment.

"Thank you," she said in a hushed voice. He just nodded in return and followed her.

Three days later, when they returned to Konoha, Uchiha Sasuke was officially labeled a Class-A missing-nin.

--------

Well, there you have it, chapter eight. Sorry it took me so long to finish. Anyway, I sincerely apologize if I made Gaara seem mushy or Sakura seem weepy. I also apologize if I made Sakura or Gaara or Naruto seem week for letting Sasuke get away, but that was just the way it had to be. Gaara and Sakura knew Naruto wanted to kick Sasuke's ass by himself, so they were gonna wait till Naruto had worn him down and then they would go in and capture him like they were supposed to for the mission, but unfortunately Sasuke surprised them by laying that explosive trap.

By the way, if I didn't explain it clearly, the trap worked like this: While Sasuke and Naruto were running after each other around the open field like chickens with their heads cut off, Sasuke was quickly laying special seals on the ground too fast for Naruto to see. There were five of them arranged in a pentagon shape, and when all five were correctly positioned, Sasuke used a set of hand signs to activate them and they all blew up simultaneously and created a huge explosion. Naruto was only able to get out of the way by hiding behind a tree and Gaara shielded himself and Sakura with his sand, and while the three of them were taking cover, Sasuke escaped. The field was so big that the explosion didn't reach Kabuto's body.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and I will try to get the next one up as soon as possible. It's going to be... . ... . ...very special. Well, bye for now!

By the way, I considered calling this chapter "Kabuto's Death Gurgle", but figured it wasn't a serious enough title, so I contented myself by at least using the word 'gurgle'. Ugh, had to kill off Kabuto, didn't want to deal with him later.


	9. Not Fragile

TAADAAA! I HAVE RETURNED! PLEASE DON'T PELT ME WITH SHARP POINTY OBJECTS!

I am SO SORRY that this chapter took so long. I hit a sticky spot with this one. A part of the original draft wasn't really that good, so typing it was like taking what I had written, putting it in a blender, and trying to spit it all out in some semblance of order. I think I did okay. Plus, I could list a whole bunch of other excuses, but then I'd just be hit with rotten vegetables.

**IMPORTANT**: Ok you guys, here it is, the chapter with the lemon. Yaaay! But because ratings only go so high, the lemon itself has been removed. The complete chapter in its lemony entirety was originaly on AFF, but that website screwed me over so many times that I got fed up and moved it to MediaMiner. So if you want to read the uncut version of this chapter, then go to my profile and click on the link there.

If you'd rather skip the lemon for whatever reason, just read this version.

A note: The Japanese do have actual beds like we do, but they also use the traditional style of bed. It's kind of like a sleeping bag that is stored during the day and rolled out at night. These are called futons.

Arg. Enough mindless talk. Onward!

--------

Chapter Nine

"And while you're there, Shikamaru needs this scroll delivered. It's high security information for the Kazekage so I expect you to hand it over in person."

"Of course, Tsunade-sensei."

Sakura stood before the desk of the Hokage. Early morning sunlight streamed through the windows, bathing the office in thin yellow. All the trees in the village were the fresh new green of spring and throughout the countryside flowers bloomed in vibrant, eye-popping colors. It was April and light, sun-lit rain showers were frequent.

Tsunade's desk was piled high with stacks of paper and mission reports as usual, while stray scrolls, files, and record books littered the ground all around the office. Tsunade sat leisurely in her large leather chair behind the desk with a small smirk plastered on her face.

"So, Sakura..." she grinned. "How do you like the new jacket?"

Sakura looked down at the white, long-sleeved, calf-length, coat she was wearing. The symbol of the medic-nin was emblazoned in red on the back and left breast. Shizune had officially presented it to her three days ago.

Sakura smiled. "I like it very much."

Her teacher just smirked wider and rested her chin in her palm.

"Well you earned it. If you hadn't, I wouldn't have put you in charge of the program to begin with. They need your expertise in Suna. How is the curriculum going so far anyway?"

"It's going very well. The last time I was there they'd made significant progress."

"Ah, that's good," said Tsunade as she nodded and leaned back in her chair. "What does the Kazekage think about it?"

"He's very pleased with the results."

"Good, good." Tsunade put a finger to her lip in thought. "How old is he again?"

Sakura blinked and shifted her weight. "Um... Well his nineteenth birthday was just this last January."

"Ah, still the youngest Kazekage Suna's ever had. Well, you give my regards to him when you get there."

"I will," she said to her teacher, bowing briefly. She picked up the large scroll from the edge of the desk and left the office. She didn't have to look to know it was encoded. Shikamaru had probably done it himself if was really high security as Tsunade had said.

Half a year ago Shikamaru had been inducted into the Konoha Black Ops corps under Morino Ibiki as an intelligence encoder and strategy officer. He was now a low-level jounin, despite never having wanted to advance that far, and was learning interrogation techniques from Ibiki himself. Shikamaru, of course, took to mental manipulation like a fish to water. His teammates Ino and Chouji were high ranking chuunin. Their team still went on missions together, with or without Asuma, and Ino and Chouji planned on advancing to jounin status by the end of the year.

The other former rookies had also advanced during the years after the second failed attempt at retrieving Sasuke. Neji was coming up on his twentieth birthday and had already become an ANBU squad leader. The "silent kill" lifestyle as an elite assassin suited Neji very well.

Lee was also a jounin and had come to rival his beloved sensei Gai in taijutsu skill, and Tenten had recently acquired the title of jounin as well. She was currently developing new weapons with the help of her father, who was one of Konoha's best weapons makers.

Shino had passed his jounin test a year ago and was now working closely with his father in preparation to be evaluated for a placement in ANBU. Kiba was preparing for his jounin test along with Hinata, who had been getting special training from her father, Neji, and Kurenai.

But the one who had advanced the most in three years was Naruto. He had made jounin a year ago, often worked with Kakashi, and went on sporadic training and information gathering missions with Jiraiya. Sakura had last seen him a week ago just before his most recent mission with the old pervert. The only thing Naruto concentrated on as much as ninja training was Hinata, whom he'd begun to date avidly. He simply loved her to death. She was still quiet and somewhat shy, but she had gained a new sort of confidence partly in thanks to Naruto's influence. Hiashi wasn't totally thrilled with the pair, but he hadn't yet forbid them from seeing each other, so there was _some_ hope. Neji, of course, had given them his full support.

Sakura giggled to herself at the mental image that Naruto and Hinata made together. Hinata, although beautiful (and rather curvy, much to Sakura and Ino's envy), had always been petite, and was completely dwarfed by Naruto now. As a strapping nineteen-year-old, Naruto had grown incredibly tall, with wild, unruly, golden hair and shining blue eyes. People were often started by the strangely uncanny resemblance he bore to the Yondaime Hokage.

Sakura herself had also come a long way. While she had only passed her jounin test about four months ago, she had already held high esteem in the Konoha Med Corps for quite some time and the white jacket marked her new place as an official high-ranked medical ninja. Her skills had reached her teacher's level now and she specialized in poisons. Her analytical mind was perfectly suited to mixing and identifying the ingredients in numerous toxins as well as creating antidotes for them.

So when the counsil members of Sunagakure had decided they needed to raise the skill level of their medics with an advanced program from their allies in Leaf, the choice for the instructor had been obvious. She'd come highly recommended by _both_ Kages.

Thus Sakura had been assigned to oversee the new medical training program in Suna every few months. This would be her third trip.

She left Konoha by the west gate in the afternoon, accompanied by her two subordinates: Honda Aishi, a mild mannered man whose first child had just been born, and Kamura Junta, an older woman who must have been very beautiful in her youth by what Sakura could tell. They were both talented in the medical field, but neither were experienced field ninjas, and they couldn't hold a candle to Sakura when it came to combining combat and medicine.

But as Sakura sped through the forest outside of Konoha with her leather pack bouncing against her shoulder with every step, she struggled to mentally unwind the writhing knot in her stomach. It wasn't from nervousness. She was too good a teacher to be nervous and it wasn't the first journey she'd taken to Suna for this purpose anyway. Neither was it giddiness from finally being an official member of the Med Corps because she'd known for a long time that she would get there eventually.

No. It was something much more serious...

It was Gaara.

The first trip she had taken to Suna to oversee the new medical program had been six months ago, and at the time they hadn't seen each other in over two years. But there was no distance created by that time. She had stepped right back into his life as if she had never left. Kankuro and Temari treated her like a sister and she always stayed in their house when she was in Sunagakure. She and Gaara had gotten increasingly close over the months now. They were strangely drawn to each other, like moths to a flame. The problem however, was that she was beginning to wonder how close she could get before she got burned.

On her second trip to Suna, just a few months ago, their proximity had increased even more, to Sakura's slight alarm. The moments when their skin touched as a scroll or book passed between hands or when they looked at each other from across a room became strangely longer than they should be, like everything was in slow motion for a split second. Gaara's brief touches and their strange new closeness rattled her, down in a small part of her that had been broken and slowly mended a very long time ago.

The strange new tension between them had scared her a little, and guiltily she had avoided being alone with Gaara for the last few days of her previous trip. She needed air, time to think. Once she got that time however, she had been forced to ask herself a very important question: _What is he to me? And what am I to him?_

'Friend' didn't seem like strong enough a word anymore. She'd lived in his _house _with his _family_ for months. She knew he was a _person_ under all that cool indifference and professionalism and sometimes she was honored that he let her close enough to see him that way. She enjoyed the fact that he could match wits with her, that he would train with her even if she could never quite win (but she could sure give him a run for his money). She'd seen sides of him that the people of Sunagakure never would. She'd seen him _shirtless_ for heaven's sake.

Okay, that one was Inner Sakura, but as much as she tried to get that little part of herself to shut up, Sakura could not deny that he definitely wasn't a short, scrawny, twelve-year-old anymore. Well, he wasn't _really_ short anyway, even if he wasn't as tall as most men.

The gears in her mind screeched to a brief halt. _Oh my God, I'm attracted to him._

No, no, no! That would cause _way_ too many problems. The broken rules! The politics! He was her _friend _forgoodness' sake! She couldn't risk that with him, she just couldn't!

_But... the way he looked at me..._

The implications spun in her head, swirling a summersaulting and doing back-flips until she didn't know which way was up anymore. (It was a good thing she had long ago trained her body to move without conscious thought otherwise she would have fallen flat on her face minutes ago.)

She looked up and the pit of her stomach dropped out.

They were only yards from the outer walls of Sunagakure. She must have been absorbed in her own musings for the better part of three days.

She and her two subordinates showed their identification and papers to the guards stationed at the break in the rock wall. The guards already knew Sakura. She had a reputation in Suna. She was the student of the legendary Medic-nin Tsunade, a genius kunoichi in her own right. She was even a personal friend of the Kazekage and his family. The medical shinobi of Suna admired and respected her both for her skill and her kind but confident nature.

She dismissed Aishi and Junta, letting them head towards Sunagakure Hospital to inform the staff of their arrival, while she headed to the Kazekage's headquarters to report in and deliver Shikamaru's scroll. The all too familiar building loomed up from the ground and the sinking feeling in her stomach changed to the twisting of snakes.

Showing her identification to the shinobi inside was only required protocol. They all knew her here too.

And then Gaara's door was in front of her, and she hesitated.

_No. I can do this. This is no big deal. I'll have plenty of time to sort things out later. For now, everything will be normal. Just me and Gaara. Just like always. _

Confidence and sureness restored, she rapped firmly on the door. A muffled reply came from inside and she let herself in. Gaara was at his desk, bent over a small stack of papers, pen held loosely in hand. His office was always so neat and organized compared to Tsunade's. He first straightened his posture before removing his eyes from the paper and fixing them on her.

"Hey, Gaara," she said with a cheery smile. His face didn't change.

"Sakura," he acknowledged, inclining his head slightly. "I've been expecting you."

"Yeah. Tsunade-sensei sent a message about my arrival right?"

"Yes. She also mentioned that you would have something for me?"

"Mmhmm. It's high security info from Shikamaru." She took the scroll from her pack and deposited it on his desk. Gaara fluidly broke the seal, unrolled about a foot and a half of it, and glanced at the encoded script, eyes darting from side to side. Whether or not he could understand what it said through the encryption, she couldn't tell. Either way, he quickly rolled it up again and placed it in a desk drawer.

"You'll no doubt want to settle in soon so you can start your job," he said tonelessly, picking up the pen again. "How long will you be staying this time?"

_Why is he being so... distant?_ "Well, three weeks I think. Unless there's a problem with that."

"Three weeks is fine," he said, eyes moving back to the papers in front of him. "You know where you're staying. Temari is there. She'll let you in." He began scribbling on the papers he had been reading. Sakura shifted her weight agitatedly.

"Gaara, is there something wrong?" she asked, slightly irritated by his indifference. This time, though, he raised his head and looked her straight in the eyes, face stoically blank.

"There's nothing wrong."

She blinked, started by his cold demeanor. _You're lying._

"Fine," she said abruptly, successfully resisting the urge to snap, but not by much. "Sorry to bother you then. I'll go now." She turned on her heel and strode stiffly out of the room, swinging the door shut behind her. Gaara's expression grew heavy as he watched her leave.

_Sakura..._

--

_What the hell was that?_ Sakura thought to herself angrily as she marched towards Gaara's home. _No 'Nice to see you again Sakura', no smile, okay so he doesn't really smile, but still! No nothing! He didn't even say anything about the new Medic-nin coat!_

Her knock on the side door of the house was a little harder than she meant it to be. She had completely forgotten that Temari had given her a key. (Not that an ordinary lock would keep out any decent ninja, but it was the gesture that counted. Besides, who would be stupid enough to try and break into the Kazkage's home anyway?)

Temari opened the door and immediately smiled.

"Sakura-chan! It's so good to see you again!"

Sakura's sour expression melted away and she gave a slight smile in return. "Hey, Temari-chan."

"Well what are you waiting for? Come on in. your room's ready as usual," Temari said, beckoning Sakura into the kitchen.

The room that Sakura had first stayed in over three years ago had become a permanent guest room just for her, her home away from home. An actual bed and dresser had been put in so Sakura wouldn't have to sleep on a futon like she had the first time. Temari clearly enjoyed having another girl in the house every once in a while.

Sakura quickly unpacked her things an put them away in the drawers and the two kunoichi headed back down to the kitchen to have something to eat.

"So where's Kankuro?" Sakura asked over a bowl of the funny desert fruit that grew around the city. The outer skin was prickly and sharp, but the red flesh inside was deliciously tart and sweet.

"He's just finishing a mission with his team. We got a message from him yesterday. He should be back in a few days. It was a high security escort mission for a Daimyo."

"Oh that's good. I'll be able to see him soon then." Temari smiled and sipped some tea. "Hey, Temari..."

"Hm?"

"Is... has anything been bothering Gaara lately?" Temari was lost in thought for a moment as she considered the question.

"Well now that you mention it, he has seemed a little more on edge the last couple of days. I'm not really sure what it is though. I can't think of anything other than the normal stresses of being Kazekage... Why? Did he say something mean?" Sakura shook her head.

"No. he just... seemed distant. That's all." Sakura frowned and stared blankly into her own cup of tea.

"Oh... Actually I just remembered something. I have a mission I have to leave for tomorrow morning, but it won't be a long one. I'll be back in no time," Temari said with a smile.

"Oh." Sakura's face fell a little. "Well then, I'll be here when you get back."

"Yeah. Don't worry. We'll have plenty of girl time later," she joked, winking. Sakura giggled and her smile returned.

Once the two kunoichi were done, Sakura made her way to the hospital to get back in touch with her two subordinates and to evaluate the progress of the medics. She was pleased to find that they were doing well and that most of them had mastered the lessons she had left for them after her previous trip.

Sakura was also delighted to find that more young ninja had been joining the medic programs and soon Sunagakure would have as many medic shinobi as Konoha.

By the end of the day, after once again getting settled into Suna Hospital and starting up the classes, Sakura was exhausted but pleased. The day's activities had taken a lot out of her and she eagerly returned to the house for a shower and promptly went to bed.

The next morning, Sakura got up early to see Temari off before her mission. Temari was in the kitchen working her way through a bowl of egg fried rice.

"Morning, Sakura," she hummed. Sakura served herself some rice and sat at the table.

"Good morning," she smiled.

"Gaara was here, but he already left. He said good morning. I'm not even sure if he stayed here last night. He must have had a lot of work," Temari contemplated, looking into her egg fried rice as if it would give her the answers. _Now that I think about it... Gaara started acting edgy two days ago... when we got the message that Sakura would be coming again._ Temari glanced up at Sakura, who was looking down at her food with a blank face as she ate. _I hope there's nothing wrong between them..._ "Well," she announced, "I better get going now."

"Have a good trip Temari-chan," Sakura chirped, suddenly snapping out of her reverie. Temari smiled and stepped to the side door, where she picked up her backpack and strapped it on, then secured her fan to her back.

With a wave she was gone, leaving Sakura alone in the small house.

Sakura spent the whole day at the hospital, rigorously training the medics in advanced techniques. At sunset she made her way back to the house and started making herself something to eat, plus extra for Gaara. She knew he didn't eat much, but she figured he would still want some food when he got back.

But when she had waited over an hour after finishing her meal and cleaning her dishes (and having nodded off at the table a few times) and he still hadn't appeared, she angrily put the food away in the refrigerator. Frustrated by his persistent absence, she stalked of to bed and lay awake in her sheets, where she had a vicious argument with herself.

_Where the hell is he! Why is he avoiding me?_

_Maybe he's just really busy. He's stayed overnight at his office before._

_But he's never made a point of ignoring me! I should go give him a piece of my mind tomorrow!_

_No, he'd just be angry at me for interrupting his work, not to mention arguing with him over something so stupid. Tomorrow's Saturday... I still have to go to the hospital, but he always comes back here on Saturdays and Sundays. I'll talk to him then... _

Sakura's inner reasoning eventually calmed her down, and she finally drifted off into a fitful sleep.

In the morning there was no sign that Gaara had been there during the night.

Throughout the whole day at the hospital Sakura internaly switched back and forth between being angry as hell and depressed. Outwardly she was as professional as possible.

By the time she got home she was both physically and mentally exhausted. That night she ate rice and dumplings in the silent kitchen and she still hadn't seen hide nor hair of Gaara since the first day.

_Kankuro should arrive any day now. Maybe he'll be able to tell me what's going on..._ she thought despairingly as she climbed into her bed, nestling herself between the clean, white sheets. _Could I have made him angry? Is that why he's avoiding me?_

Unable to find an answer, the dark quiet of sleep slowly consumed her.

--

Water.

The sound of running water was drifting up from the kitchen downstairs. It was faint, but Sakura still woke with a start.

_He's back..._

The digital clock read 1:21.

_Of course he would come back in the middle of the night when I'm asleep! _

Sakura wouldn't take this anymore. He was going to give her some answers _now_. She threw off the covers of her bed and silently stalked to the door, slipped out into the hall and padded down the stairs. She wasn't even sleepy anymore. She planted herself firmly in the open door frame that connected the kitchen to the living room.

There he was, wearing a dark red tunic and black pants, standing in front of the stove where the pot he had just filled with water sat heating on one of the burners.

Sakura didn't have to say anything. He knew she was there. She got limp all of a sudden as he turned to her.

"Sakura."

"Gaara..."

"Do you want tea?"

Monotone voice. Monotone face. She shook her head. His gaze swiveled back to the teapot and he turned the burner off. The water wasn't even near boiling. Walking past her he whispered, "You should go back to sleep Sakura. It's late. Good night."

She swelled indignantly, face contorted by an angry frown, and grabbed his wrist harshly before he could reach the stairs.

"God damn it, Gaara! Why are you avoiding me? Did I make you angry or something?"

No sooner than she had screamed it the wall was at her back and he was gripping her tightly by the upper arms (perhaps it had been a reflex), his breath heavy as he stared at the floor, molten red strands of hair obscuring his face. She looked at him with wide, questioning eyes.

"Gaara... please..." she quietly pleaded, then her voice turned quietly demanding. "Tell me what's wrong."

Still she didn't fear him, could challenge him when she wanted too, even when he had her wedged against a wall. It was what had separated her from so many others for so long.

He sighed heavily and let go of her arms.

"I'm not angry at you."

She let out an exasperated huff. "Well... then let's have some tea." He looked at her strangely as she turned away to the kitchen door. She paused and looked back at him when he didn't follow. "Well, come on," she urged. His expression shifted back to stoic and he followed her, then settled into a moody slouch against the kitchen wall.

Sakura turned the burner back on and waited as the water boiled and neither said anything while the tea steeped.

The tea was poured into two earthenware cups, but instead of sitting at the kitchen table as Gaara had expected her to do, Sakura carried both cups out into the living room. She set Gaara's cup on the little table in front of the couch and sat down to drink her own tea. Gaara simply stood behind the couch, half lit by the yellowish light streaming in from the kitchen.

"Well, sit down."

Gaara was not the kind of man you could easily order around, _ever_, but for her sake, and for the sake of alleviating the awkward situation, he would indulge her. So he sat a few feet away from her, hunched over the cup he held with both hands, but he did not drink.

"You said you weren't angry, so why have you been avoiding me like the plague?"

He was silent for a moment or two before he answered, "I didn't want to make you _uncomfortable_." There was only the tiniest bite in his voice, but Sakura caught it.

"What?" she asked, clearly confused.

Gaara set the cup down on the table this time and as he answered he actually looked at her through slightly narrowed eyes. "During your last visit, it became clear that my company was making you uncomfortable."

She stared dumbly at him. _What the hell is he talking about...? _And then her eyes widened a little. The meaningful glances. The slight touches. Even though she had kissed him years ago, she had been scared by the slightest of advances. She hadn't returned any of it. _Damn..._

"Gaara," she began firmly. "You don't make me uncomfortable." He looked at her as if to say that she better start telling the truth or else. She was treading on thin ice, she knew, but she could deal with him. He was her friend, more than that, and she could do this. "I just didn't know how to react. That's all."

_Sakura, you don't know what you're getting yourself into. _

His expression was hard to read. Distance. Maybe there was a little disappointment. And under all that, a tiny speck of pain that even years of public acceptance and friendship hadn't managed to get rid of.

_Decision time,_ she thought to herself.

"But know I think I do," she whispered. Her teacup joined his abandoned one on the little coffee table and she leaned over to him, bridging the gap, supporting herself with a hand on the couch cushion as she pressed her lips to his.

Soft, warm, not even chapped from the desert wind. He barely responded at all. She stopped and pulled back slightly, but when she met his eyes the intensity stopped her heart for half a moment. Then his hand was at the back of her head, firmly pulling her in till their mouths met again.

Slow and firm and even better than that distant kiss in his kitchen years ago. She loved it.

His mouth opened and she responded in kind. Tongues touched. He sucked on her bottom lip and the hand at the back of her head ran through her hair. She set her right hand on his shoulder to support herself, leaning over him with one knee on either side of his leg. His teeth grazed her lip and she pressed harder in retaliation.

Then his hand settled at her waist, and she was suddenly, awkwardly reminded that her pajamas consisted of only a loose T-shirt and small cotton shorts. Even the bindings that normally kept her chest flattened weren't there. Her knees trembled slightly in the effort to hold herself up over him.

"Sit," he commanded, voice rough and slightly breathy. She complied, and the hand on her waist moved to press against the small of her back, firmly bringing her to sit over his lap. His mouth was on hers again, hungry and demanding. No longer needing the support, her arm wound around his neck, fingers threading through his blood-red hair, while she placed her other palm on his clothed chest.

Breathing heavily, Gaara moved to her jaw, then her neck, mouth forceful. He bit down gently and soothed the bites with his tongue. Sakura panted while she ran a hand over his clothed shirt. Gaara moved the hand on her back over her chest greedily, gently kneading through the fabric. She gasped. He pulled her closer until she could feel the proof of how worked up he was getting.

He wanted her. Of all the people in the world, she was the one he wanted, the one he trusted enough to show both the man _and_ the monster. She could show him how she felt too.

She smiled warmly as she brushed his hair away from his face with the tips of her fingers and leaned down to lovingly press shaky lips to the symbol on his forehead.

Gaara paused, breathing hard as she kissed his forehead then moved to give the same attention to his neck that he had given to hers. In a daze, his own fingers touched the kanji as well.

"Sakura," he rasped as she shifted in his lap, still working her mouth on his neck. There was a warning in his voice. "If you want to stop, now's the time." He gripped her waist and pulled her body more forcefully against his to make his point absolutely clear. "Because if you don't I'll want all of you."

His meaning was unmistakable. She shivered and whispered her answer in his ear.

"If you get all of me, then I get all of you."

He was frozen for only a second before crushing his mouth to hers. Her arms wrapped around his neck and his hands slid under her thighs as he stood. She clamped her legs around his waist as he walked up the stairs and into his bedroom, closing the door behind them.

--

Weak sunlight streamed through the bedroom window, hitting Sakura in the face. She squinted as her mind slowly emerged from the cloudiness of sleep.

She was laying on something soft and warm and... breathing?

Of course. It was Gaara. She smiled sheepishly and cracked her eyes open, all the while hoping she wasn't crushing him. Her vision met a lean stomach and white sheets. She was resting her head on his chest with an arm and a leg slung over him. He was idly tracing patterns on her back. He was awake of course, leaning his back against the pillows and the wall, watching her quietly. Sakura turned her head over to smile at him.

"Hey." He gazed back at her with the strangest face she'd ever seen on him. It was not strange by its self, but odd on someone like Gaara. He had the look of a mildly curious child who was seeing something unusual for the first time and waiting for someone to explain what exactly it was that he was looking at. "What?" she asked, suddenly self-conscious. His expression went back to impassive.

"How do you feel?" he asked while rubbing her back.

"Huh?"

Fingers ghosted over her hip. "I mean, does it hurt?" he asked curiously.

She shook her head gently. "Not really. Just... a bit of a sting. But it's nothing."

Her fingers found their way to his abdomen, then up his chest to his shoulder. There was a scar there, one of the few he had. At first she couldn't quite remember where he got it. It was small and jagged, not made by a blade.

_Oh... of course. This is where Sasuke hit him with the Chidori during their match in the Chuunin Exam finals... That was so long ago._

Sakura shifted upwards to look at it closer. The motion revealed her stomach and with it, one of her own scars. Gaara's fingers traced it curiously. It was short, thin, and fairly smooth.

"What's this from?"

She looked down at his hand to see what he was talking about. "Oh. That's where the Akatsuki member Sasori impaled me with a sword. I got between him and Chiyobaa-sama."

Gaara absentmindedly traced the little scar for a while.

_She got this on the mission to rescue me three years ago..._ He frowned at it. _The mission to rescue me..._

"I used to think love made people weak."

The statement was so sudden, and Gaara's voice was so dark with that hint of warning in it, that Sakura froze as the possible meaning of it sifted through her brain. She dropped her forehead onto his shoulder to avoid looking into his face.

"Only..." she began quietly. "It only makes you vulnerable to the person you love. But it doesn't matter because if you love them... then you trust them not to hurt you. And if they love you back... they won't. And then they're also willingly making themselves vulnerable to _you_."

She couldn't look at him. His green eyes would pierce right through her if she did.

"Good," he growled as he pulled her face up to lock eyes with her. "Because I _hate_ feeling weak." He roughly crushed his mouth to hers, holding her body against his, and she melted into him.

And then the moment was ruined by Sakura's stomach rumbling. She froze and separated from him... then burst into giggles. He watched her laugh for a moment with an amused smirk on his face.

"I guess I'm hungry," she said sheepishly after she stopped giggling.

"So get something to eat then."

Sakura nodded and crawled over him, slipping shyly out of the bed sheets. He watched her silently as he got up as well. Sakura pulled on her underwear and, because she didn't feel like putting the rest of her own clothes on, grabbed Gaara's red silky button-up shirt and slipped it over her head. It swamped her.

Gaara watched her leave _his_ room in nothing but a pair of underwear and _his_ shirt and couldn't help but smile predatorily. He pulled on his pants and followed her.

Gaara had often considered getting rid of the bed in his room, but just hadn't gotten around to it. He always had more important things to worry about. But now that the bed had a _use_... it wouldn't be going anywhere.

Upon entering the kitchen he found Sakura rummaging around in the cupboards for something to eat. It was a good thing that it was warm inside the house or else she would have been cold in so little clothing.

As she reached for a high cupboard with one hand the red shirt slipped of her right shoulder, revealing a mark in the curve of her neck, the clear imprint of teeth.

While a small part of him reveled in the fact that she was marked as _his_, the rest of him frowned at the mark he'd given her. He hadn't really meant to bite _that_ hard.

Sakura didn't even flinch when Gaara's arms encircled her from behind and he began kissing a particular spot on her neck. She smiled to herself. _Great. Now he's going to be possessive..._

"Sorry about the bite," he murmured as his kisses started traveling farther up her neck.

"You didn't even break the skin." She smiled and lifted her hand to play with his hair. _Hmm... What are we now?_ she wondered to herself. _'Boyfriend' is a silly word to apply to Gaara. Besides, we're too old for that... So then we're... lovers? That still sounds weird..._

Suddenly Gaara's head whipped around towards the side door of the kitchen. Sakura turned too and reflexively reached for her kunai holster, then mentally cursed when her hand met nothing but the bare skin of her thigh.

The handle turned and the door swung open, then closed behind the intruder.

"...K-Kankuro?" Sakura stuttered. Kankuro stood inside the door of the kitchen, eyes wide, staring at the two. Slowly, a wide, open-mouthed grin stretched across his face.

"K-Kankuro?"

"Oh my God! My little brother finally got laid!"

--------

Well there you go. Smut _and_ humor. Huzzah. Sorry for any character weirdness in this chapter. And sorry once again for the extreme delay in updating this. I'm currently working on the draft of chapter eleven. This story will probably have around fifteen chapters to it.

And woohoo! School's out now! I am officially a Junior! Hopefully this will speed up updates.


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